


Hermione Granger and Pandora Avery: First year

by OffKeyPanda



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Background Relationships, Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Canon Rewrite, Cause they should have been canon, F/F, F/M, Fremione - Freeform, Gryffindor & Slytherin Inter-House Friendships, Gryffindor Common Room, Hermione Granger Being a Know-It-All, Hermione Granger Needs a Hug, Hermione Granger is a Good Friend, Hermione Granger-centric, Hogwarts Inter-House Friendships, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Slytherin Common Room, Slytherin Pride, Slytherin Reader, they are only 11
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25250197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OffKeyPanda/pseuds/OffKeyPanda
Summary: Pandora Avery and Hermione Granger have been Friends as long as they remember. Born and Raised muggle, the girls had been together forever, Through they might be different Pandora being fun and carefree and Hermione who likes to stick to a plan and not get too crazy, they somehow pull off a beautiful Friendship
Relationships: George Weasley/Original Female Character(s), Hermione Granger/Fred Weasley
Kudos: 9





	1. Pre-Story Chapter

_Pre-story chapter_

_November 11th, 1981_

* * *

Jackie and Steven Granger had taken their two-year-old Daughter Hermione out to the park, to get used to playing with other small children, They had just found out they couldn’t have more children, and while it broke their hearts, knowing they wouldn’t have a full house and that their daughter wouldn’t have siblings, they vowed then and there, to make sure that Hermione had everything she deserved, cause as the doctor had explained, she was a miracle to have been born.

  
“Which one is yours?” A soft voice spoke, bringing both parents out of their thoughts, to see a fellow parent standing near the bench they were on.  
Jackie Smiled at the lady and nodded towards the young Hermione, who was now playing with another little girl about the same age, who was dress similar to Hermione with a bow in her hair, a yellow t-shirt and pants, only difference Hermione had her favorite lilac colored shirt on. 

“That's our Hermione, is that your daughter?” Steven asked and the woman beside them nodded and took a seat once the couple had scooted over to make room.

“Yes, that’s Pandora, she’s two” The woman paused and held out a hand to the couple, my name is Jessie Avery”  
Jackie and Steven shake Jess’s hand and share that Hermione is also two.

“Hermione is a beautiful name” Jess complimented and Jackie thanked her as she also shared that she loved Pandora’s name.  
Steven and Jackie chatted some more, before checking the time and realizing they had been talking for the better part of two hours, as they started to stand and say their goodbyes, Jackie had an Idea 

“Why don’t you, Pandora and your husband come to dinner tonight. The girls are getting along so well.” Jackie offered and Steven just smiled as he knew why Jackie had offered, realizing that Pandora would be a great friend for Hermione, now that the chance of siblings was gone. 

“We’ll love too!” Jess accepted before picking up Pandora and telling her the news that they were going to dinner and the young girls cheered.  
Before they left Jackie and Jess swapped numbers so Jackie could tell her the address and the time.   
As Jackie pulled the chicken pot pie out of the oven, Steven was working on the salad and both kept an eye on Hermione while she played with her toy piano, slamming on the keys without a care in the world.

They heard a knock on the door, all three knew who it was before going to check. Hermione bounced up before her parents could even take a step towards the door and Steven chuckles as he sees his two-year-old daughter jumping trying to grab the doorknob.  
Reaching around her, he opens the door, and right away the girls found each other and pulled each other into a hug, that would make you think they hadn’t met for the first time today. 

Steven Greeted Jess again and shook her husband Kyle’s hand, “And here I was thinking Jess was exaggerating the girls, quick friendship” Kyle confessed and Jess chuckled  
“When will you learn not to doubt me?” Jess asked jokingly, she and Jackie shared a chuckle as Jackie came out of the kitchen to let them know that dinner was done.  
They sat around the dinner table and talked to one another. When Jackie confesses part of the reason they had invited them over, explaining that she could no longer have children and wanted Hermione to have more kids in her life. 

  
Jess and Kyle had tears in their eyes and Jackie apologized thinking she had put a damper on the mood. Jess and Kyle shook their heads and Jess explained that She also couldn’t have any more children and was also the reason she had gone and talked to them, the adults shared a watery chuckle and watched as the girls talked about their favorite toys.

* * *

  
  
_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Five Years Later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_  
Jess was wrapped in Jackie’s arms, tears running down her face, next to her husband who had a tight hold of their daughter Pandora on his lap, they all sat on the couch in the Granger's home, Steven came out of the kitchen holding Tea out for Kyle and Jess as he sits in the love seat across them, with Hermione who curled into his lap, tears of her own as she hears what happened to her friend.

“The fire had started so quickly we had just grabbed Pandora and ran, one of our neighbors called the cops, thank goodness for that, we’re not sure we would have been able too,” Kyle told them as he clutches onto his wife’s hand, who was still crying in Jackie’s arms

“We are so glad you guys are okay,” Steven told them, watching as his wife let out a few tears along with who had become their best friends as well. 

“We didn’t know where else to go, the firemen said we should find somewhere to stay while they looked over the house and they’ll call to tell us if-if anything had made it” Jessie explained, tears had stopped but her voice was still roughed from the crying.

“Hush, you guys are family, you will be staying here as long as we can have you,” Jackie told the family who managed a small smile from Jackie’s phasing.  
Little did the Avery family know that they would end up sharing the Granger’s house, for a year until all of them moved into a bigger house, where the Granger's and the Avery's lived and raised their girls together, as a family.

  
But before any of them happens, Hermione stands from the love seat and goes to the little pot in the window and grabs the dying daisy and bring it over to Pandora who sat silently on her father's lap, though when Hermione brings it over it isn’t dead, but brightly alive confusing the parents in the room.

  
“Honey, I thought you said the flower was dead,” Steven asked, sitting up straighter and Jackie stared at her daughter, stuttering out that it had been.  
“Ya’ know, Pandora did something like that other day” Jess shared, sitting up herself, wiping the tears from her face as she watches the girls cuddle next to Kyle “We were having hot chocolate and I had forgotten to put tiny marshmallows in it, Pandora was upset, next thing I know, we look in our cups to see that they all had marshmallows in them.”   
“Maybe we’re just imagining things, this could all be nothing” Kyle stated, and while they nodded, they knew deep down something didn’t add up.


	2. Chapter Two: Finding out

_Finding out._

_August 25th, 1991_

_3rd P.O.V_

* * *

[Pandora Avery](https://abestactress.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/pit2bpony2b6pa.jpg) woke up from someone hitting her in the Face, She tried to swat them away only for them to push her out of bed, groaning she looks up to see the smiling face of her best friend, her sister in all but blood, [Hermione Granger](https://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0s7x8HqPS1qfvzyf.gif), though she was smiling she knew Hermione was annoyed at something

"Pans You're cuddling me to death," the eleven-year-old said getting out of bed and going across the hall to the bathroom, leaving her friend laying on the ground, looking around Pandora saw the light purple walls and realizes that she must have made her way into Hermione’s room last night and decided to cuddle her best friend, throwing Hermione's blankets back on her bed she wonders why she woke up in her friends' bed as she hasn’t done that since a few months after the fire but shrugged it off as she got up from the floor Pandora looked around her room and saw her violin on the floor walking over she sat it on Hermione's white piano with painted flowers.

Pandora looked to find Hermione's matching bracelet on the floor, she picked it up to place it on Hermione’s bedside table, before heading to her own room.

Pandora walked into her own bedroom that was right next to Hermione’s, her walls were a pale pink and instead of a piano in her room, she had two love seats in her room, one black and one yellow with a white coffee table in between. Walking to her closet she picks out a pair of jeans and a grey t-shirt, and her black sneakers.

Knocking on the bathroom door she waited till Hermione came out dressed for the day, wearing the same as her only with red sneakers. Pandora walked in the bathroom and began to brush her teeth for 2 minutes, a habit she picked up from growing up around dentists; she also brushes two, if not three times a day. Getting changed she ran out the room and down the stairs sliding down the railing and into the living room, keeping her eye out for her parents as she passed the dining room and into the Kitchen. 

Pandora sees Steven and Jackie cooking breakfast and she wishes them a good morning, She sat down next to Hermione and grabbed her glass of milk and took a drink

"Pandora!" Hermione yells at her best friend as Pandora gives her a cheeky smile, Hermione laughs, used to her friend acting this way. Jess walks in from the laundry room where Hermione and Pandora knew she must have locked herself out while getting mail and had to walk around the house to the back, as this isn’t the first time. 

"Good morning, mama Jess” Hermione greeted as Jess dropped the mail on the island and went to sit next to the girls, kissing their cheeks, wishing them a good morning as well.

Kyle comes in the kitchen and wishes them all a good morning, He always wakes up later than the girls when it’s his day off, while the others have work and he stays to watch the girls, though today is a rare day where they all had a day off and they planned on spending it as a family.

Soon Jackie and Steven place the food on the table and take a seat with the gang as they all begin to eat and talk about possible plans for the day.

Soon after finishing breakfast Steven and Jackie with the girls make their way to the sitting room towards the front of the house, the girls rushing to grab the books they were reading the night before, but a knock on the door pulls the adult's attention from their conversation, not expecting guests.

Jackie answers the door to find an older looking woman grey hair up in a tight bun and wearing what looked to be a green fancy robe.

"Hello my name is Professor McGonagall and I was wondering if Hermione Granger and Pandora Avery are here." the woman says and Jackie looks at her strangely.

"Yes, can I ask why you're here?" Jackie asks and McGonagall smiles at her.

"I'm sorry I haven't explained. I think it would be easier if everyone was here though dear." Professor McGonagall says and Jackie nods her head and invites the strange women in.

"You can have a seat. I'll just get the others." Jackie says, gesturing towards the sitting room where her husband Steven sits in a yellow chair, the girls in the white love seat next to him. standing to greet the unexpected guest, offering her a seat in the yellow chair across from himself.

Soon Jackie walks back in, Jessie and Kyle in tow and the three of them sit on the blush pink couch across from the girls, and on Steven’s left, the others greet the woman, as they all settle in.

"My name is Minerva McGonagall and I work as a professor at a school called Hogwarts, and to be blunt, It's a school for witches and wizards." she pauses to pull something out of her pocket. Two letters, She hands them to the two girls on the right of her and they open them reading the welcoming letter along with the supply list.

"I'm sorry, but are you trying to imply that magic exists?” Steven asked, and can’t help but let out a laugh of disbelief

"I am not implying anything, I’m telling you it is.” McGonagall raises an eyebrow at the men who don’t believe her and can’t help but note that the women have a look on their face, and McGonagall knows that they believe her.

"What, are you trying to scam us? There is no such thing as magic." Kyle says, starting to get a little angry.

“Kyle…”Jess whispers, reeling from the information

“Don’t tell me you believe this woman” Kyle stares at his wife and Jackie

“Kyle, Steven, think about it, all the things we could never explain that happened to the girls,” Jackie tells her husband and their best friend.

"I promise you I am telling you the truth. I can show you," she tells them and with that, she pulls out a long stick and waves it and the vase on the table starts to float in the air. Then it moves towards the two girls and the dead flowers that Jackie forgot to water turned into beautiful lilies. The girls stare at the flower in awe as the parents look bewildered. 

"How do you know they are witches?" Jessie asks coming to sit next to her daughter as Jackie moves to sit with hers.

"You yourself said that the girls have done strange things. Things that no one could explain, Your daughters are witches." Minerva says and the two sets of parents look at each other knowingly. Strange things have been happening ever since they were toddlers. They just thought they were seeing things when one of the girls' white shirts turned purple or when the orange juice turned to apple juice.

As the others start to think about all the other strange things that have happened Kyle notices that the room is all too tense and tries to lighten the mood. "Well, I was gonna say you were looking a little green." The three other parents look at him like he's crazy but the girls laugh and Professor McGonagall smiles.

"Oh, they won't turn green. Those are just stories. The only way for them to turn green is if they were hit with a curse but any witch or wizard can give the counter curse. Now we have a few things to discuss. The only way to get to Hogwarts is by the Hogwarts Express which is located in King Cross Station. Now the Hogwarts Express leaves at nine sharp and the only way to get there is to go through Platform 9 3/4. you will run in the middle of platforms 9 and 10. This just keeps the muggles from seeing magic." the Professor says then Jessie cuts her off.

"What's a muggle?" she asks the Professor and she smiles again. 

"A muggle is a non-magical person. Like your husband and you. Some lucky muggle-borns are gifted with magic. Now that you know how to get the Hogwarts you need to get the supplies for the school. In the letter I gave you, it lists off everything you need. You will have to go to Diagon Alley which is a shop for wizards and witches. You will be starting school on the 1st of September and since that is in a week I'm going to show you how to get there the muggle way." she explains to the two families. "We will take those vehicles you use to get there. Bring some muggle money as well. We need to change them to wizarding money." she says and they all just sit there trying to let it all sink in.

"Mum. Let's go." Pandora says as she pulls her mum up. Hermione doing the same for hers. Their dads are up and getting the cars ready. 

* * *

After a while of driving, and the girls watching Professor McGonagall fidgeted in the seat, clearly not used to being in a car. 

The cars pull to a stop and they get out and walk towards a brick wall. The Professor goes over and taps a few of the bricks and they open like double doors. Everyone stares at the inside of the brick wall in awe.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley." the Professors says as she walks forward.

"Oh my God." Hermione and Pandora said, excitement clear in their voices as they looked around, Professor M. started leading the way again and the two girls followed behind, trying to look at everything as they walked. 

Hermione and Pandora looked around they saw many people, most of them dressed pretty funnily, but they figured that's just how wizards and witches dressed 

"What's an owl post?" Hermione asked, seeing a station for it.

"It's how we send letters in our world, dear" 

"Is It hard?" 

"Not really, I can show you later if you all like," Professor said glancing back at the parents 

"Yes please," All of them said.

"Where are we going?" Pandora asked, still holding Hermione Hand

"Gringotts" Professor said "The Wizarding Bank" The girls nodded stopping next to their family, The girls looked up to see a large marble building, "Ah here we are" The Professor states.

As they walk in the girls, see the goblins are the tellers and see more Wizards and Witches and hear words that _sound_ magical and they realize that they had a lot to learn, but the girls knew they would learn together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys are reading this story I would love to hear your comments and hope you are enjoying it! -OffKeyPanda


	3. Chapter Three: Diagon Alley

_Diagon Alley_

_August 25, 1991_

_3rd P.O.V_

* * *

Once they had gotten their money the parents had taken them to a place to get fitted for their robes and to get pointy hats and left so the Professor can teach them how to send owls.

"I'm not wearing them," Pandora said 

"You have to its the school rule" Hermione tried to tell her

"Well I don't wanna, hats aren't my thing."

"Pans please, just behave"

They heard chuckling and looked towards the door and saw the lady who runs the shop, "Sorry" both the girls said blushing 

"Oh don't be dears, you two are quite funny. Are you sisters, twins? You’re both first years, yes?"

The girls giggled a bit 

"Yes this is our first year," Hermione said  
"No we are not twins," Pandora said

"But we are as close as sisters," They said together, she looked shocked that they just did that but thought it was cute.

"Ya know nearly no one wears the hat, it's mostly the last dinner at Hogwarts" She filled them in, "I think they just think the little kids look cute in them"

"Yes!" Pandora cried throwing her fist up making the other to laugh,

After they got fitted they paid with a little help from the lady telling them what coins are what.

Only after they left the shop, Hermione states that they really should learn the coins better and Pandora agrees to say that someone less kind could take advantage of them.

* * *

They met up with their parents a little down the way of the shop and got everything else on the list but the wands and some extra books that Pandora and Hermione wanted, being the bookworms they were. 

Entering the wand shop Ollivanders, Hermione and Pandora were nervous, The Professor told them that the wand chooses the witch, ' _What if we can't find a wand, would they say they messed up and send us home?_!' Pandora and Hermione thought panic, and sharing a look they noticed they both had the same thought,

"Hello, welcome, first year at Hogwarts?" The girls nodded yes "Sisters?" the girls shook their heads no

"Best Friends, "Pandora and Hermione said

"I'm Pandora Avery" 

"I'm Hermione Granger" Both giving him a wave

"Nice to meet you both, now let's see what we got here, let me see what we got here" With a wave of his wand a tape Measure came out and started checking the girl's arms, legs, body, and...nose?, sharing a look the girls giggle "Muggle-Born?" He asked suddenly 

"Yes, sir," Hermione said and notice Pandora wasn't listening " _Both of us_ "

"What hand do you write with?" 

"We are both right-handed, Sir" Pandora answered this.

"Okay, try this one," He said handing Hermione a red wand and listing off things about it but she did catch the fact he said Unicorn hair, "Go on, Give it a wave" Hermione waved it and Pandora felt like her legs got kick out from under her as she fell back on her bottom. Hermoine rushed to hand the wand back before she helped her tiny friend back up "Sorry, Pans" 

"Its okay just aim better next time, I think you were aiming over there" Pandora pointed to her father making everyone chuckle as Kyle pouted 

"Here dear try this one," Mr. Ollivander said, passing Hermione a beautiful brown wand that had lines going around it with carved leaves at the end. " 10¾" long, made of vine-wood, with a dragon heartstrings core," He said handing the [wand](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31fNMOwLeJL._SX342_.jpg) over

giving it a twirl, Hermione saw that feathers appeared and was floating[ down ](http://static.tumblr.com/yoymale/pfZm9uluw/feathers.gif)on her and Pandora, "I believe, Miss Granger has found her wand" Hermione was smiling so big, she stepped back and Let Pandora stand where she was. 

"Hmm, let's see here" He looked around. "Ah here is one, It's the twin of my wand, hornbeam with a dragon heartstring core. It is 12 3/4 inches long" Handing the wand to her, she smiles and takes it and gives it spin a swirl pointing out in front of her but not aiming it at the wandmaker, a pile of wands was blown all over the floor 

"Sorry," Pandora said handing the wand over "Do you need help cleaning that up?" Mr. Ollivander looked slightly shocked at the fact the young witch would offer.

"No it's alright dear, I got it, but thank you very much for asking" With a wave of his wand, it taken care of, 

"Magic is cool" 

"It is" He smiled before pulling out another "Try this one, 10¾", long made of maple, twisted cut and curly, and dragon heartstring core" handing her the wand She waved it around and giving it a twirl and flick, a puff of yellow comes out and out of that came a butterfly, 

"Miss Avery, you have found your wand." 

* * *

Everyone walked to the book shop while Professor McGonagall took a walk to the owl post to send the headmaster something. Steven and Jackie went with her to see how to use it again, making sure they got it right.

Pandora was about to walk into the book shop when she looked to the pet shop that was off to the left of the bookshop and stopped walking.

"Hey, mum, dad, can I use my extra money to buy a pet? I'll take care of it, I swear"

"I thought you wanted to buy books so you two can catch up on stuff"

"Yeah, and I might still have money for both" Hermione saw that they were caving and helped out

"And if she gets an owl then she can mail you whenever without trying to go to some mailroom they might have set up that's filled with students"

"Alright, we can look. Look we won't buy anything until I am done talking with your father" Her mum said staying at the doorway as the girls walked inside, they managed to hear Pandora's Dad saying " _I think it'd be cool to have an owl_ " 

Walking inside they saw a lot of owls, cats, and toads as Pandora looked around with Hermione when her eyes landed on a beautiful [owl ](http://www.wild-facts.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Spotted-Eagle-owl.jpg)that was sitting by itself. Going up to the very young clerk upfront she pointed to the owl, "Can you tell me more about that one?" 

"Well its a girl, she has never been named, she quite beautiful, she one of the owls that are good for Hogwarts students, a good listener and for muggle-born students, she's always nice to the muggle parents that come in here" Pandora nodded "You wanna buy her?" 

"Yeah, but I should ask first" 

"I always found that to be a good idea" Pandora chuckled before putting one finger up saying she will be right back and walked over to Hermione. Sneaking up behind her, Pandora quickly covered her eyes and mouth causing Hermione's elbow to fly back and it Pandora's stomach

"Argh!" Pandora said holding her belly "Why must you always do that when someone tries to kidnap you!" 

Hermione stared at her, mouth open gaping 

" _Because Someone is trying to kidnap me!_ " Hermione said in disbelief of her friend's action

"Yeah well...Watch where you swinging those things, and check out this owl I want" again they heard chuckling they looked back to See the clerk leaning against the wall by the owl's cage she wanted 

"You guys are funny." 

"Yes, we seem to get that a lot" Pandora smiled and quickly elbowed Hermione's arm and walking, well-running, towards the clerk and standing behind him slightly and now smiling at Hermione

"You better hope this doesn't bruise" Hermione warned

"Or what" 

"Or I'll tell mum" Pandora paled and even the clerk paled

"You do that and I'll tell mum how you almost got hit by a car last week when you snuck out" 

"You mean when _we_ sneaked out!" 

"Details," Pandora waved her hand as if to say whatever

"You snuck out of your house? To do what" The teen boy asked, confused what business these little girls got up too, pausing before adding "My names Eric, [Eric Duval](https://media.giphy.com/media/QUFioRXvAfy9y/giphy.gif)" 

"Nice to meet you, I'm Pandora, she's Hermione" 

"Unique names." 

"Thanks," They replied.

"So what were you doing?

"Well, there's this girl who is a first-class b-" Hermione coughed, cutting off her friend.

"Brat, I was gonna say brat" Eric smirked, knowing what she was gonna say, "Who likes to pick on us like once she tripped Hermione" Eric looked at Pandora as if to ask 'Is that's all'.

"Down the stairs" His eyes widened. "We were nine. Hermione broke a tooth" 

"Damn"

"So we snuck out which was not easy" Pandora stated

“Both of our bedrooms is on the 2nd floor and we weren't able to go do to the living room so we had to climb down the balcony," Hermione said

"Anyways once we got out and went to her house, she has a big sister who is just like her and she drives this stupid little green car" Pandora explained

"So before we left, we swung by our neighbor’s house. She always grows plants and one of them is poison ivy.” 

“So we got there and the top roof window was open so I climbed in and unlocked the door, for Hermione, and while wearing gloves we rubbed the poison ivy all over the seats and steering wheel.” At the end of Pandora’s explanation, the girls smiled brightly, almost looking innocent as if they weren’t talking about pulling a prank.

"Dang, you're gonna cause some trouble at Hogwarts," Eric smirked, impressed with the girls.

"That's the plan," Pandora said.

"No, we are not gonna prank,” Hermione said, trying to sound stern before mumbling out “...a lot” Eric and Pandora chuckle.

The girls hear their parents come into the store and shoot Eric, a look that says, snitch and die to which he holds his hands up, surrendering.

"Mum check out this cool owl, can I have her?" Pandora asked her mother, batting her eyes, to which her mother just snorted out a laugh “Okay, but how about for an early birthday present?” Pandora tried a new way.

“When is your birthday?” Eric asked, to which Pandora replies, letting him know hers is on the 1st of September and Hermione’s the 19th. “Happy early birthday,” He tells the girls “I’ll be in my 5th year so I’ll wish you another one then” He smiled at the girls.

"How much is the owl?” Kyle asks as he introduces himself to the young man

"Only 3 gallons for the birthday girls’ " Eric said

“We can’t ask you to do that,” Jess tried to tell him, but he waved her off, telling her, his parents owned the store so it’s no biggie.

"In that case, we'll take it" Pandora hugs her mom in thanks.  
Eric brought the owl up to the counter and grabbed some of the food, which he insisted was also on the house. As he was ringing them up, and placing the food and pamphlets in a bag for the family, Hermione’s mother asked Eric what house he was in.

"Slytherin, Ma'am" Eric answered, a small smile on his face as he watched the girls help Jess with the money.

Jackie tries to think back to what she was reading about the houses earlier "And that's the one cunning and ambition, right?"  
“Yes, ma’am. Our house colors are green and silver and Merlin himself was in our house.” Eric told her, knowing that most muggle parents loved to learn as much as they could for their kids.  
“I’ve always loved green,” Jackie smirked, a slight giggle at her joke as Jess handed him the money.

"Well let's go, girls, we gotta get the books and find where in the world our husbands went," Jessie said, Hermione and Pandora looked around to see that their fathers had wandered off somewhere while they were checking out. “It was nice to meet you!” The mothers told the young man.  
"Bye Eric, see you around school" The girls called out to him as they headed out.  
"Nice meeting you guys too, see you girls ‘round"

* * *

"Hey Mione look what I found, 'Hogwarts a History', do you think that would come in handy?” Pandora asked, holding the large book up for her friend to see

"Yeah, that way, we’ll know as much as the magical born kids” Hermione agreed, grabbing one for herself and watching as Pandora added her own to the growing pile in her arms, but they were used to it from their many trips to the library.  
"I think that should be good for now," Pandora asked, and sticks her tongue out at Hermione when she comments her arms not being up to the task of carrying her books.

Then girls checked out and began walking to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, where they were meeting up with their parents. Hermione was carrying the bags books and Pandora who had a bag herself and her owl were trying to guide Hermione since she couldn't see over them. They were almost there when somehow they ended up on the ground with books around them. 

"I am so sorry!" A voice yelped out and the girls opened their eyes to see a boy around their age, offering his hand out to the girls

"It's okay, I couldn't see over the books and Pandora zones out," Hermione said rubbing her head 

"Here let me help you with the books" The boy had short hair and a vest "I'm [Blaise Zabini](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/thethundermans/images/a/af/JUSTICESMITH.jpg/revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/450?cb=20141005220917)" He held his hand out to the two girls after they all stood and begun picking up the books, luckily Pandora’s owl was okay if not vaguely annoyed  
"I'm Pandora"  
"I'm Hermione  
"It's nice to meet you," Blaise said as he gave them some extra bags he had with him.

"Well thank you for helping" Hermione  
"Least I could do, I mean I did run into you.” Blaise waved it off.

"Are you going into your first year too?" Pandora asked  
"Yeah, is it your first year? And your sisters 2nd?" Blaise asked looking between the girls, who were used to this question as well, Hermione was taller than Pandora so people always assumed she was older.

"Oh no, we're not sisters, and we are both going into first-year," Pandora said  
“We were heading to get ice cream, would you like to join us?” Hermione asked, looking nervous both of the girls weren’t the best at making friends, Pandora could mask her nerves a little better than Hermione though.

"Yeah, my mother and I aren't meeting until later."

"Cool, well let's get going, my arms are giving out" Pandora joked but was surprised when Blaise had reached out and grabbed a bag from each girl, leaving Pandora with one bag and her owl, while Hermione now only had two bags herself.

"My mum raised me with manners," Blaise said with a small smirk.

“Well thank her for us,” Hermione said, not forgetting her manners either, and neither girl missed the frown that came over his face for a second, but neither mentioned it.

"So you two are both muggle-born?" Blaise asked, seeing the sneakers and jeans the girls wore.

"Yup, we met as babies and now we’re living together. It's a long story" 

"Wow that's uncommon for two random kids to be born and be bests friends and both are witches"

"Guess we're just lucky" Pandora smiled at her best friend, “How about you Blaise?”

“I’m a pureblood. Both my parents are magical.” He tacked on at the end, in case they didn’t know what that meant.

"What house do you think you'll get, "Hermione asked

"I know I'll be in Slytherin," Blaise said with a slight edge invoice 

"Is that bad?" Pandora asked, confused.

"No, well yeah, Slytherin is the 'bad house' everyone there grows up to be evil. My whole family has been in it."

"So you're saying your family and anyone else in that house is evil?" Hermione looked at Pandora, Eric was in Slytherin, he didn't seem evil, he seemed nice.

"Not everyone, some people are like me, forced into the house cause they don't want to be disowned or they are just nice but can fit some other qualities and as for my family...They're my family...." They all nodded their heads understanding it all "How bout you, Hermione? What house do you think you'll be in"

"Ravenclaw, Or maybe Gryffindor"

"Same as Hermy-"

"Don't call me that!" Blaise let out a laugh at the girls' actions.

"Fine. Same as Hermione, Ravenclaw or Gryffindor" 

"There is a slim chance I could get into Ravenclaw.” Blaise mused “So you guys are really smart then?"

"You did see how many books we were carrying, right?" Pandora asked as they laughed "Oh we're here" Opening the door to the ice cream place they stepped in to find the place pretty much empty, they went to sit down at the booth closes to the door so they can put their bags and owl down sliding in Hermione slid in first and across from Pandora while Blaise sat next to Hermione. 

"That's a cool owl, Pandora" Blaise complemented passing out the menus 

"Thanks, it's a girl, I'm still working on the name " and before any more could be said a waitress walked up and asked for their order.

Hermione had ordered the sugar free vanilla, Pandora ordered the sugar free mint chip ice cream, and Blaise ordered a strawberry while looking at them like they were crazy, before they explained their parents are concerned for teeth, figuring magical people might not know what dentists are. 

"So does us being muggle-born and you being a pureblood make a difference?” Pandora wondered Blaise looked Uncomfortable all of a sudden

"N-no, well kinda you see some purebloods believe that muggles shouldn't have magic, there are some wizards who think they're better than everyone else because they're what people call purebloods… I mean some wizards know it doesn't make any difference at all" Blaise paused, looking down at his ice cream that the waitress had just brought over, they all thanked her quietly “My mother is one of them, but I’m not, I try to be better” 

"Should we look out for insults or something like that?" Pandora asked, softly.

"There's this name, my family says it, I don't, well I try not to, but I don't want to be disowned"  
"We understand," Hermione said, pushing her arm against his, in silent support.

"It stands for dirty blood, um" He leaned in and whispered "Mudblood"  
"That sounds mean," Pandora frowned.  
"It is," Blaise said.

The kids soon go back to talking about Hogwarts and magic, what classes they look forward to and what they’ve heard it’s like when out of nowhere Pandora speaks up.

"Medusa" Pandora spoke up

"Huh"

"I wanna name my owl Medusa"

"Medusa?" Blaise asked

"Oh right, um... [Medusa ](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0rznqY4YU1qhuo9eo1_500.jpg)was a woman in Greek Mythology with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazing directly into her eyes would turn onlookers to stone" Hermione explained to Blaise 

"Oh, That's cool, very Slytherin, I approve" Blaise joked and everyone chuckled. The bell above the door jingled as four people walked in 

"Hey guys" The four looked up to See the Grangers and Avery's

"Hey Mum, Dad" Pandora and Hermione voiced "Mum, this is Blaise” Hermione pointed beside her  
"You guys made friends!" The girls blushed  
"Mum" The girls whined as all the guys laughed.

"You know we're just teasing, Nice to meet you, Blaise,” Jackie Said, shaking Blaise’s hand when he reached to do so  
"Nice to meet you as well, Ma’am," Blaise said, shaking Jess’s hand as well.

"I don't mean to be rude but We should start heading home, we invited Ms. Rosalie, and Ms. Mila over for you’re guys birthday dinner” Ms. Rosalie was their neighbor and Mila was someone that worked at Jessie’s and Kyle’s bookstore.

“Wait is it your birthday?” Blaise asked, looking between the girls.  
"Not yet, mine is next week and Hermione's is in three weeks, but we're in school then" Pandora explained, as they all slid out of the booth,  
"Well, Happy birthday!" Blaise said, placing the correct amount of coins on the table for the waitress “Think of this as your gifts.”

“Oh, we couldn’t ask you to pay for us,” Hermione told her new friends.  
“You’re not, It’s a gift, and it would be rude not to accept a gift,” Blaise smirked, realizing that he had won this one.

The family says goodbye to Blaise, as they headed home.  
Hermione and Pandora walked with arms linked, talking about magic and spells, and about the new world, they are now a part of.


	4. Chapter Four: Hogwarts Express

_The Hogwarts Express_

_September 1, 1991_

_3rd P.O.V_

* * *

Pandora was sound asleep when her bedroom door opened and five people came in, walking up quietly to where the young girl slept, they counted down not making any sound till they got to ‘one’ when they switched the bedroom light on and they all cried out;

“Happy birthday!”

Pandora jumped up with a slight scream she would later deny, she heard a flash of a camera, after she got her breath back she looked around and saw her family standing there with smiles, her dad holding the camera they use for the family scrapbook.  
Hermione crawled into her friend's bed hugging the now older girl, as Jackie place a tray in front of Pandora, for her to see it has two plates of Waffles, one with tons of whip cream, _(Pandora knew that one was for her)_ and the other with Strawberry jam which was for Hermione and juice for both of them.

"After you eat, Come downstairs and you can open gifts before you gotta leave okay" Jackie and everyone went downstairs you could hear their mum talk about " _Our babies are growing up_ " causing the girls to roll their eyes as they ate, talking about school.

After the girls finished eating Hermione, gets out of the bed and gathers the tray  
“Get dressed, we have gifts and then we head to kings cross”

Getting up Pandora couldn't help but smile Hermione and she already decided to just wear their school uniform to the Train station, so she grabs the plain black skirt, and white button-up and the black-tie that they told the girl would turn into the house colors once sorted.

After showering and brushing her teeth, Pandora waltz into the Kitchen, seeing Hermione was also dressed, she probably had to sneak a shower in her parent's bathroom. 

“Hello, Granery family!” Pandora announced as she took a seat next to Hermione, who gave her another birthday hug as they sat at the breakfast nook, Their parents finished cleaning up from their breakfast.

"What?" The parents said as Hermione rolled her eyes

"Granger plus Avery, Granery" Hermione informed their Parents who nod, looking like they like the name.

Pandora noticed that even though they both were in their school uniform, Hermione had gone with wearing long socks while Pandora wore her usual no-shows.

Soon all the parents join their daughters at the table and hand Pandora her presents one by one. Pandora’s father going first, handing her a gift in black wrapping paper, Pandora tries not to just tear into it, trying to show some self-control, Pandora opens the gift to see her father had gotten her a journal with butterflies on it, “You can use it for school or just as a journal” 

Pandora thanks her father and reaches around the table to hug him. Not being able to wait any longer Jackie passes her gift over, She loves to give gifts, Pandora opens the gift in purple wrapping paper to see beautiful stationery, white paper with purple flowers in the top left corner and in the bottom right.  
“To write home while at Hogwarts!” Jackie announced a wide smile on her face.  
“Thank you, mama Jackie.” Pandora again reaches across the table to hug her as well.

“Here Pandora open mine now” Hermione hands Pandora a small box, not wrapped but had a red ribbon wrapped around it. Opening the gift, Pandora let out a small laugh and as she looked at the charm, Hermione had given it to her friend for her charm bracelet. It was a simple but beautiful witch's hat. They had gotten the charm bracelet for their 6th birthday and every time something big happens in their life, they receive a charm, either from each other or their parents. Throwing her arms around her Best friend in a thank you, and Hermione holds up her own to show that she also had one  
“Mom gave me mine early for my birthday. They're for us going to Hogwarts!”

Next, it was Steven handing her a badly wrapped gift in yesterday's newspaper. He was never good and never claimed to be, at wrapping gifts, everyone one laughed, even Steven himself.  
Opening the lumpy gift Pandora beamed at what it feels like at times her second father, as she held the black sweatshirt hoodie up, it was soft and had simple white lettering across the chest that said ‘Treat people with kindness’. 

Pandora thanks Steven, With a hug before turning to her mother who had the last gift.  
“Here, darling, open mine now” Jess hands her a present, and just like her father’s it was wrapped in black paper, opening it Pandora gasps from the sight and so does Hermione.  
“I thought you guys could use it so you could take pictures of Hogwarts and your friends!” Jess tells the girls, both of whom hug her, “and don’t worry, I put plenty of film in your trunk” 

“Well as much as we’d love you, girls, to stay, we gotta start heading out,” Jackie tells the girls as they all move out of the nook, one sliding out after the other. “You girls go head up and make sure you have everything packed.”  
  
Nodding the girls ran up to Pandora’s room first to put all her gifts away and made sure she had everything packed and then moved to Hermione's Room, once again double checking making sure everything was good, and then called down for their fathers to have them help to carry the trunks down the stairs.

They decided to take Jackie and Steven’s van as it the one that would fit all seven of them, to avoid splitting up before they have to go to school and won’t see each other until Christmas.

* * *

All too soon the family got to the barrier, they all turned to each other, Pandora and Hermione gave their parents a big hug before switching and hugging the other set of parents.  
"We’ll miss you all" Pandora said  
"We will try to write as often as we can" Hermione threw in

"Oh, girls," Their parents said in a quiet voice, choking back tears. “Right on you go, don’t need you missing the train”

Pandora and Hermione got reading to push through the barrier, with one last look at each other and their parents, they ran through, Pandora first and Hermione after her.

The girls boarded the train, but as they made their way into an empty compartment, Pandora sat Medusa down as they tried to heist their trunks up onto the overhead shelf but were having some trouble doing so, at one point Pandora’s trunk landed on her foot, leading her to let out some colorful words before Hermione got a hand over her friend's mouth.

"Need some help?" a voice rang behind them, Spinning around the girl's eyes fell on Eric, who was standing there in robes with Green and a badge that read Prefect, 

"Sure if you can," Pandora said with a smile, and Hermione let out a giggle.  
"You doubt my strength" Eric acted offended, hand over heart and all  
"Of course not-" Hermione said  
"Well-" Pandora threw in  
"Yeah, we do" The girls smiled 

"You know it's freaky when you girls do that" Eric muttered putting Hermione's trunk away, after Pandora’s  
"We know" The girls spoke in unison again.

“So how were your parents this morning?” Eric asked  
“They were good, we were all a little bummed, we’ve never been away from this long before, but we promised to write to each other and made sure they know how to owl, we got them a book after we left your shop” Hermione explained.

“ 'The magical book for the muggle-born parents, learning about the magical world your child lives in' so it tells them how to owl," Pandora told him.

“Oh yeah, what did you end up naming this little beauty,” Eric asked, reaching between the bars to put the owl’s feather, who preened into his touch. 

“I named her Medusa, after-”  
“The Greek myth” Eric finished, and Pandora nodded slightly shocked “My Father was a muggle-born” He added seeing them wonder how he knew.

"How bout I sit with you guys for a while, till I got to do Prefect stuff," He said taking a seat across from the girls 

"Sure but your friends won't think it's weird you are sitting with a couple of kids" Pandora wondered

"Nah, truth be told I only got like two good friends and one of them is a quiet friend so we don’t like talk until we do"

"Oh okay. Oh check out what I got for my birthday" Pandora pulled her Camera out of robes

"That’s cool, you're gonna be taking a lot of pictures to cause if so, I’m gonna need to start making sure my hair looks nicer,” Eric said ruffling his hair up a bit, making it look messier.

“Yeah, I mean not always but mom and dad expect pictures, of our robes after we get sorted” 

“Makes sense” Eric nodded, “So your trunks were pretty heavy, did you pack your whole room” Eric joked, but he also knew that sometimes being homesick can make you do something like that.

The girls laughed shaking their heads, “No, We just got a bunch of books to make sure we were as caught up as some of the kids that grew up around magic” The girls explained.

“You guys don’t have to worry about that, even in magical household there are kids who don’t know anything or think they’ll naturally know it,” Eric told them and they could tell he thought the idea of it was ridiculous. 

But before any more could be said the trolley came by and asked if the girls wanted any, but they declined, as they had left their money in the chest.  
“Nonsense, I’d buy,” Eric said, already standing and going to the trolley, not listening when the girls insist they couldn’t accept the gift, but Eric goes on pretending he hadn’t heard them. That got him a smile from the lady, Eric turned towards the girls whose cheeks had a hint of pink “Do you guys have any preference?”  
“No, we’ve never had any wizard candies”  
“All the more reason to have some” Eric tells them before turning back towards the woman “Could we get; one sugar quill, one fudge flies and one chocolate frog” Eric hands over the correct amount of coins before sitting back down.

“Here you go, Hermione for you a sugar quill, Pandora, a chocolate frog, don’t worry it’s not a real frog, but it’s charmed to jump, so be sure not to let it jump away, and some fudge for myself” The girl's thanks Eric and bite into the treats before deciding just how good it was.

“What’s this?” Pandora asks, lifting a card out of her wrapper, It had the picture of an older woman but the interesting thing was that the picture was moving, the woman lifts her head and smiles an almost smug smile, at the top, it shows her name “Artemisia Lufkin”

“Oh those are collective cards,” Eric tells the girls “Below the picture it should go into who she is.” Eric takes a bite of his fudge once more and smiles when the girls glare at him for talking with his mouth full. Pandora moves closer to Hermione so she could read as well

_“In 1798, Ms. Lufkin rose to the position of Minister for Magic of Great Britain, and Ireland, succeeding Unctuous Osbert, and became the first female ever to have held the office. She was sorted into Hufflepuff. Ms. Lufkin passed away in 1825, aged around 71.”_

“Ooh! I got a good one” Pandora smirked at Hermione who sticks her tongue out at her best friend.  
  


“So are you excited for the classes?” Hermione asked, looking to the older boy  
“I can’t wait for charms, it’s my favorite class. I would like to go into something with charms once I’m older” Eric confessed to the girls “What classes are you guys looking forward to?” 

The girls looked to each other with smiles and once again answers at the same time “All of them”

Eric shook his head as he lets out a small laugh “Well, I should go and do whatever prefects do" Eric laughed 

"Oh yeah Congrats on that" Hermione smiled 

"Thanks, I'll see you around, good luck with the sorting," Eric said before slipping out.

The girls sat alone and began quizzing each other about different spells, a bad habit that carried over from their other school, they do it when they're nervous.

Soon enough someone poked their head inside 

"H-Hi, m-my name Is N-[Neville](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YibZiAHhaNE/ThcXlrJX1_I/AAAAAAAABBw/AkqsKOpTwgE/s1600/matthew+lewis1.gif), May I-I sit with you?"  
"Of course Neville, I'm Hermione Granger, This is my friend Pandora Avery"  
"Nice to meet you"  
"You t-too" The doors opened again to show Blaise in the doorway  
"Hey there you girls are" Blaise stepped in and saw Neville "Hello, Blaise" Blaise introduced himself, holding a hand out to shake Neville’s shaking and slightly clammy one, by the way, Blaise tried to discreetly wipe it on his pants  
"I-I'm Neville"

Blaise took a seat next to Neville and across from Pandora, Looking at her with a smile  
“Happy Birthday, Pandora”  
“I-It’s your B-Birthday? H-Happy Birthday” Pandora thanks both boys with a smile and a slight blush on her face.

They all make some more small talk, but then Neville pats his pockets letting out a whimpering moan “Oh no!”  
"What's wrong?" Everyone seemed to ask at the same time  
"I lost Trevor!"  
"Umm..."  
"My pet frog, I know I had him on the train"  
"Don't worry, We'll help you find him, Why don't you boys look around here while Pandora and I will both go one way and ask around?" Hermione said standing up with Pandora, 

"We'll be back as soon as possible" Pandora nodded to them as they both left their seats and hugged, leaving each other as Hermione went Right and Pandora went Left.

_(Hermione's P.O.V)_

After Pandora and I separated I started asking everyone in each compartment but everyone said that they hadn't seen a frog. I sigh as I go to the next compartment. There were two boys in it surrounded by sweets. One boy had red hair with some dirt on his nose and the other had glasses and messy black hair, almost like Eric’s but less curly. I walked in and looked around but didn't see anything.

"Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville lost one." I say to them.

"No." the redhead answered, and I looked to see he had his wand out.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see then." I tell him and he clears his throat. 

"Sunshine. Daisies. Butter Mellow. Turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" he yells and points his wand down at the rat in his lap with wrapping from sweets. The box flies off the rat and the redhead looks at the kid with the glasses and shrugs. I then noticed the boy with the glasses had tape holding together the middle part on his nose.

"Are you sure that's a real spell? Well it's not very good, is it? Of course, I've only tried a few simple ones myself but they've all worked for me." I say as I walk to sit down in front of the boy with glasses. "For example _Oculus Reparo,_ " I say and the tape disappears and the binding is together. The boy with the glasses opens his eyes wide and the redhead looks over with food in his mouth. The boy takes off his glasses and looks at it. "That's better isn't it?" I ask as he examines his glasses. Then I notice the lightning bolt on his forehead. "Holy Cricket! You're Harry Potter! I'm Hermione Granger." I say and then turn to the read head. "And you are?" I ask. I then notice that his face is stuffed with food again. Does this boy ever stop?

"Um. Ron Weasley," he says with more food in his hand.

"Pleasure," I say with a slightly grossed out voice. I then turn to Harry Potter. "You two best change into your robes. I expect we'll be arriving soon." I say as I get up. Just before I left I remembered the dirt I saw. I turned towards Ron and said "You've got dirt on your nose by the way. Did you know? Just there." I say pointing to where it is using my nose. The train's bell rings and I turn around and walk away. I must have sounded annoying but the boy looked like an absolute pig. After searching a few more compartments I had reached the end of the train and went back to my compartment.

"I couldn't find your toad, Neville. I'm sorry." I say and Neville looks down. 

"It's okay I'm sure he'll pop up somewhere," he tells me and I give him a small smile. Then Pandora walks in with a smile on her face. 

_(Pandora's P.OV.)_

After Hermione and I separated I started to go look on the left side of the train for Neville's toad, checking with people if they saw a toad 

"Ribbit, Ribbit" I called going down the hall looking at the floor until I hit something and fell back "What are you doing?" I heard a voice say before seeing a hand coming down to help me up, holding it I was pulled up to see a boy around the age of 14 "I'm looking for my friend's toad" He just gives me this look 

"By going around saying Ribbit" I stared him in the eye  
"Yes" He just shakes his head with a chuckle  
"I'm Cedric" He held his hand out  
"Pandora, nice to meet you" 

"Same here"  
"So have ya seen a toad?"  
"Nope, the only thing going ribbit is you" 

"Funny"  
"I try" Cedric replied with a shrug and a smile  
"Well, as much fun as this has been, I must be off, If I'm not back before the Train stops my friend would probably have a panic attack" Pandora joked

"Alright, See you around," He said walking past me "Oh Pandora" I turned back "Fingers crossed for Hufflepuff" and with a smile, he turned around and walked away with me doing the same.

Going up to a Compartment I knocked, knowing that they may be getting dressed, but they yelled out a "Come in”, opening the door I saw a dark-skinned boy with dreadlocks along with a pair of red-headed twins

"Have any of you seen a toad hopping around?" They shook their heads 

"Well sorry but no Frogs, I'm Fred," One of the Redheads said  
"I'm Lee" The boy with dreadlocks nodded giving me a small wave  
"And I'm George," The other twin said

"I'm Pandora" They looked at me for a moment  
"Unique name," They all three said, I rolled my eyes  
"Thanks, I get that a lot"

"So is this your first year?" George asked  
”Yup, how about you three?"  
"Me and Georgie here are in 3rd year, Lee is in 4th year." 

"Cool, so what house are you three in?" I asked the boys 

"Gryffindor" they all answer together. 

"What house do you want to be in?" Lee asks.

"Ravenclaw, perhaps Gryffindor" 

"Here a seat" Lee said about to move over

"Oh no that's okay, I should be heading back now, but if you see a frog Neville lost it.” The boys nodded as I made my way to leave “Bye, it was nice chatting with you" 

"You too" Turning around I walked out but ran into someone. Again. 

"Oh sorry" I looked up to see Eric and Smiled

"It's okay," He looked behind me and to the boys "Just wanted to tell you we will be there shortly so be ready" He looked back down at me "Come on I’ll take you back to your Compartment" I smiled and nodded but before we could leave one of the twins spoke up 

"Wait, You can just stay here" I looked to see George speaking but he also kept glancing at Eric's tie...Eric's _Green_ tie 

"Why?" I asked trying not to sound mad and like I don't have a clue about the rep Slytherin has.

"It's just, um I-" 

"Judge someone because of what color they happen to wear, Now if you excuse me I am gonna let my Slytherin friend walk me back to my compartment where my Friends, who will most likely be in Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw, are waiting for me" Grabbing Eric's hand I pulled him away closing the door with a slam.

"Oh man his face was just too funny," Eric said as he stopped laughing, I let go of his hand as he can focus on walking again, 

"I know, I'm amazing," I said joking 

"I don't know about amazing but you are good" I smiled as we reached my Compartment.  
"Alright, as I said, be sure to be ready and tell Hermione I said hello" I nodded before walking in still smiling, I noticed Hermione wasn't

"Okay three things, One; I couldn't find your toad, but I'm sure he'll turn up Two; Eric said, we will be there soon so get ready and Three; What's up Mione?" I asked sitting by her as the boys left to change into their robes, 

"I ran into some people while looking"  
"Who? Purebloods?"  
"No, you know the boy we read about"

"You mean Harry Pot-"I stopped what I was saying and groan "Tell me you didn't do that Holy crickets thing we do" She nodded 

"And then I sounded stuck up but then again his friend was annoying" 

"It's okay Mione. Do you wish for me to Prank them"

"No, I'm just really embarrassed"

"You should be, know why? You geeked out over him" I laughed at the look on her face and soon she joined in as well.

Soon enough the boys made it back and we all sat talking to one another while Hermione and I tried not to bounce off our seats, out of nerves or excitement, I’m not even sure we know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> I hope you all are enjoying this story! 
> 
> Please let me know your thoughts and comments, It means more then you could ever know.
> 
> I'm writing this myself with no beta, It would just be cool to hear from you guys, and if not me please comment for some other stories you like, I promise you it would bring a smile to their face.
> 
> Hope everyone is safe
> 
> ~ OffKeyPanda


	5. Chapter Five: Hogwarts

_Chapter five: Hogwarts_

_September, 1st, 1991_

_3rd p.o.v_

* * *

Soon enough we arrive at Hogwarts. Hermione and Pandora instantly stood up and ran out of the compartment and got out of the train. They then come across a very tall man, they wonder briefly if perhaps he was a giant, talking to a kid with glasses. "That's him. That's Harry Potter." Hermione tells Pandora in a whisper. 

"Firs’ years! This way to the boats! Follow me!" He yells and the kids all do as they're told and follow him.

Pandora and Hermione wound up at a doc with a bunch of little boats that could fit 4 people in them. Hermione and Pandora got in with Neville and Blaise. As soon as everyone got settled the boats started to move forward by themselves. Looking up, the girls couldn’t hold in a gasp as they came into view of the most magical and beautiful medieval castle. It looked amazing in the moonlight. After a short trip, the boats docked finally at Hogwarts.

"You just go up those steps an’ you'll see Professor McGonagall. She'll tell you what's gonna happen. I'm Hagrid if anyone was wondering, I’m da’ grounds keep’r." and with that, he walked away having us go up the stairs. The girls were nervous about what house they were going to be sorted in but held onto each other's pinkies trying to stay close while not looking too scared.

As everyone made it to the top of the stairs the girls recognized Professor McGonagall standing at the top, once again her hair in a tight bun, her face much sterner than when she came to the house.

“Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."  
With that Professor McGonagall, headed into the great hall once more.

Hermione and Pandora, look each other up and down, Hermione straightening Pandora’s tie and Pandora moving Hermione’s hair out of her face, they looked around and saw others do the same, Harry Potter was patting his hair down, the redheaded boy was rubbing dirt off his nose and Neville was trying to fix a bunch of different things at once, prompting the girls to walk over and help him.

After helping Neville, the girls went back to muttering to each other in quick whispers quizzing each other on their knowledge of magic so far, if not just for a way to calm down.  
They watched as Neville announced happily, diving down to grab Trevor who somehow managed to find his way to the school.

But before any more could be said a bundle of ghosts came through the floor behind them and hovered above the group of kids bringing a silence over the room.

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost -- I say, what are you all doing here?"  
A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.  
Nobody answered.  
"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"  
A few people along with the girls nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."

Hermione and Pandora walked in, Hermione taking the lead and walking in front of Pandora, almost shielding her.

As everyone walked in there were gasps from people the fellow first years, the room was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting.

"It's not real. The ceiling." Hermione says.

"It's just bewitched to look like the night sky." Pandora chimed in. 

"We read about it in Hogwarts: A History." The girls finish what they were saying together and smile at each other. Pandora looks around and finds Eric giving Hermione and her a thumbs up and a smile.

The group all keep walking until they end up by a stool with a very old and tattered looking hat. "Now before we begin Professor Dumbledore would like to say a few words." Professor McGonagall announces.  
A man with a long white beard and silver robes stands, Pandora and Hermione recognize him without the introduction, Professor Dumbledore was in many of their books.  
"I have a few starts of term notices I would like to announce. In the first years please note that the Dark Forest is strictly forbidden to all students. Also our caretaker Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone that does not wish to die a most painful death. Thank you." he says as he sits down. Pandora and Hermione shared a look, Pandora wondering what's in the door, while Hermione was trying to say don’t even think about it, even though she would never admit it but she too was curious. The girls were taken out of their musings by McGonagall talking.

"Now when I call your name you will come forth I shall place the sorting hat on your head and you will be sorted into your houses," she tells us. She then holds up a piece of parchment and calls out, "Hermione Granger."

The girls share one last look with Pandora whispering "Good luck, and you'll do fine." and with a gentle shove, Hermione walks up. "Oh, no. Okay, Relax," she says as she walks up.

"Mental that one," the red-haired boy says and Pandora turns towards him to send a glare at him.

Pandora looks back to see the Sorting hat, humming, as if trying to think before picking a house. “Hmm… a difficult decision, oh yes, I can see all the houses being great for you, ” The hat murmurs out, and a few teachers that sat in the back whispers to one another, “Heart full of wanting a change in the world, and courage to take it.” Hermione sits for about 4 minutes before the hat bellows out “ _GRYFFINDOR_!” Hermione beams at her best friend before rushing down and taking a seat at the table covered in a red cloth, across from the redheaded twins that Pandora met on the train.

"Draco Malfoy," McGonagall says and he walks up and sits down on the stool. The hat is just barely placed on his head as the hat yells out "Slytherin!" he smirks walking towards the table Eric is sitting at as they cheer. 

Pandora once again hears the red-haired kid say "There's not a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin." Pandora feels another surge of annoyance at the kid, right then Pandora vows to find a way to show not everyone is evil, Eric is there and so Blaise will be as well, and obviously, neither are evil.  
  


"Susan Bones," Mcgonagall calls. A girl with reddish-brown hair walks up and sits down. "Hufflepuff!" the Sorting hat yells.

"Ronald Weasley," she said. The red-haired boy goes to sit on the stool and the hat is placed on his head. "Another Weasley. I know just what to do with you. Gryffindor!" that hat yells and the table that Hermione is sitting erupts into a loud cheer.

"Harry Potter," she calls. He walks up as the room becomes so quiet you can hear a pin drop. He walks up and the sorting hat is set on his head. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent. Oh yes and a thirst to prove yourself. But where to put you." the hat says and Harry starts to mumble something Pandora couldn’t quite hear. "Not Slytherin eh? Are you sure? You could be great you know. It's all here in your head. And Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness there's no doubt about that. No?" the hat asks and Harry is still mouthing words. "Well if you're sure. Better be Gryffindor!" the hat yells and Harry lets out a breath and goes to sit next to Ron as the twins yell. "We've got Potter!" Pandora realizes that he had been up there for perhaps 3 minutes, almost matching Hermione’s time.

"Pandora Avery." McGonagall says and Pandora feels a moment of panic as she walks to the stool, trying to keep her face blank as to not show what she’s feeling, she plays with the charm on her bracelet the one with the letter “ _H_ ” to try and calm herself as she struggles for a moment to get on the stool due to how short she was, she could see Hermione giggle slightly.

Once placed the hat starts speaking aloud “Yet _another_ difficult decision, don’t believe I’ve ever had three in one year” Pandora could hear whispers come from behind her, and could see the students all whispering to each other, including the twins to Hermione, who almost looks proud. 

“Fire in you along with courage. Where would you be best? Hmm. You have ambitions and want to make great achievements in your heart and fire to do it. So be it; Slytherin!" the hat yells out, and suddenly the once whispers grew louder, even Professor McGonagall looked shocked as well. 

Pandora could see Eric move to the front ready to greet her. Pandora felt the wind knock out of her and looked from Hermione’s shocked face, one of the twins hand on her shoulder, she couldn’t tell which from here, to Professor McGonagall’s, who looks on a mix of worried and pity  
"I'm sorry dear. You need to go along though," she tells me.

Pandora slides off the stool and walks down meeting Eric who places a hand on Pandora’s shoulder leading her to next to where he was sitting. hesitant clapping came from the table and others. But Pandora didn’t care much, as all she wanted to do was sit next to her best friend.

"It's gonna be okay Pandora," Eric whispers to her.

"Hi. I'm Henry. A 2 year. You'll like it here I promise." Pandora nods at him and gives a weak smile, not being to muster up words but Eric explains to him, her best friend is in another house.  
After a while, Blaise is sorted into Slytherin. Pandora can give him more of a real smile and he awkwardly pats her back, knowing that she must be feeling awful 

Pandora doesn’t pay attention to the rest of the sorting and soon enough dinner is served but Pandora barely eats anything. Only ate what Eric put on her plate, a small piece of roast, and some greens.  
Soon enough Professor Dumbledore dismisses everyone, but Professor McGonagall comes up to Eric and Pandora holding the pair back who share a look of confusion before seeing she is also pulling Hermione away as well.

* * *

_{Hermione's P.O.V}_

"Congrats on getting into Gryffindor. Hermione right?" One of the twins said, reaching around the other and shaking the young girl's hand.

"Thank you, and yes Hermione, and you are?" Hermione asked, a small smile on her face 

"Fred, Fred Weasley, This is my Twin George" Fred introduces himself and his twin, who also shakes Hermione’s hand.

Hermione can’t help but play with the letter “P” charm on her bracelet as she waits for Pandora to be sorted,

"What's ya got there?"Fred asks, pointing to where Hermione’s hand kept fidgeting.

"Oh it's my best friend charm, my friend Pandora has the other half"  
"Does she have brown curly hair"  
"Yes.." Hermione answers, slightly worried as to how he knows her.  
"Oh, We met her on the train" That's where it clicked  
"Oh, you're the judgmental twins!" Hermione cried out before her mind caught up, blushing to her roots when she realized who they were.

"Yeah, Sorry, So He's a friend of yours?" George asked speaking of Eric

"Yeah, We met him last week and talked on the train some more." The twins nodded  
"Do you think she will be in this house too?" Fred asks this time.

"Yeah, I mean she might be in Ravenclaw, I hope not, we are a lot alike but I think she thinks I am smarter, but I know she is braver" 

The twins smiled as we waited, Harry potter went up to the stool and it went quiet, it a little while for him to get sorted before the hat finally yelled out Gryffindor making the whole table blow up in cheers and the twins shouting "WE GOT POTTER, WE GOT POTTER" as they try to get Hermione to join in the chant, nudging at the girl's shoulder who just laughs and claps, a light blush on her cheeks. After he came down and everyone calmed down, Hermione also noticed that the twin swapped spots, now with Fred next to Hermione and George next to him, She wonders if they do that kind of thing a lot and decides to keep an eye on them, so they can’t fool her.  
Soon enough Hermione hears the one name she was waiting for 

"Pandora Avery'' Pandora walked up to the stool and Hermione tried not to laugh at the trouble Pandora had getting onto the stool, but doubts she got away with it, as Fred looked at her with a smile. 

The hat was placed on her head and Hermione sent her a smile and a thumbs-up as the hat spoke 

“Yet _another_ difficult decision, don’t believe I’ve ever had three in one year” Hermione looks on proudly at her friend “Fire in you along with courage. Where would you be best? Hmmm. You have ambitions and want to make great achievements in your heart and fire to do it.” Hermione hears Fred whisper to her that Pandora and herself had the longest hat stall so far. “So be it; Slytherin!" The hat yells out and Hermione feels like she’s been hit in the stomach, and by the looks of it, Pandora felt the same.  
The once whispers in the room grew louder, and Hermione could feel Fred’s hand on her shoulder, trying to ground her almost.

Hermione saw Professor McGonagall’s face and saw that she too was shocked at the hats choice before leaning down to whisper something to her best friend who then slides down and walks over to Eric who had walked over to meet her, leading her to an area to sit.

Hermione could feel the twin's eyes on her, as well the hand trying to comfort her but all she could see was Pandora’s shocked face as she took her seat next to Eric and could tell that Pandora was as well clutching her charm.

This was all wrong, Pandora was in the Slytherin house and Hermione was in Gryffindor.  
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

"A-Are you o-okay?" Hermione looked across and saw Neville, who looked at her with worry, Hermione tried to give him a small smile but found it harder than she thought.

Soon the sorting was over and dinner began and people started to eat, but Hermione didn’t have much of an appetite, especially seeing Ron eat further down the table, but she ate what the twins pushed towards her which was a piece of ham and some greens.

Dinner was over and the headmaster excused Everyone, but Hermione could see Professor McGonagall go up to Pandora and Eric, telling the pair of them something to make them wait behind. 

Before Hermione could make a move to go with her house, standing next to the twins, Professor McGonagall came up telling the young witch to stay behind for a moment and to follow her. 

Hermione saw the twins give her one last glance, but was forced to move along when another redhead yelled out to them.

* * *

_{3rd P.O.V}_

Hermione followed Professor McGonagall down to the front where Pandora and Eric waited for them, Hermione walked over and met Pandora halfway in a hug, holding tight, not wanting to let go. Eric walked over to the girls placing a hand on their shoulders, trying to give them some comfort.

Professor McGonagall stood in front of the group, “ Girls, I know this may come to a shock, the important thing is to remember that the sorting hat doesn’t make any mistakes”  
Pandora and Hermione felt the need to argue but bit their tongues when Eric, sensing this, once more placed his hands on the girls' shoulders, trying to calm them. “Now the only reason I felt the need to pull you aside is that I have seen you guys at your shared house and I wanted to let you know that, while we encourage the houses to sit together for dinner. Breakfast and lunch you can mingle with other houses. But that does not mean I want to see it every day, as your first two years you should be forming a bond with your house.” 

“Yes, ma’am” the girls chimed, moods slightly lifted “Thank you”

"Excuse me, ma’am, do you think I could sit with them sometimes, you know to look out for them in case anyone has a matter with it" Eric spoke

"Maybe not as often as it is your job as a prefect to keep your house in check" He nodded.

"Now Mr. Duvel if you could show Miss. Granger where the Gryffindor Common room and then head on down to your house"

"Yes ma’am, Thank you again," Eric said, and Professor McGonagall gives them a stern nod,

“You all have a goodnight” The group turns ready to leave “Miss Avery” Professor McGonagall called, making the group turn back “Happy birthday” Pandora smiled and thanked her.

* * *

As Pandora, Hermione and Eric started making their way towards the Gryffindor house, it was silent until Pandora let out a small laugh

“Well It wasn’t my worst birthday,” Pandora said, causing Hermione to giggle herself  
“No that honor will always be your 6th birthday” Pandora’s cheeks lit up and Hermione laughed harder  
“What happened on your 6th birthday?” Eric asked Pandora turned to him answering before Hermione had a chance  
“That's for us to know, and you to never find out.”

The trio walked in silence for a few more minutes before Hermione broke it, looking down at her shoes.

“I hate this” Pandora and Eric look to the bushy-haired girl “This was supposed to be great, and now we won’t be in the same house”  
“I know, it sucks, but as Professor McGonagall said, we’ll still be able to sit together at times and I’m sure we’ll have classes together” Hermione just nodded at her friend’s words. Pandora, hating to see her friend like that pokes Hermione’s cheek

"You wanna set up a prank, that always makes you feel better," Pandora asks “I’m sure I can think of somebody to prank”

"Nah, It’s late and we don't get anything to do one"

"And there is a Prefect right here," Eric said

“Eh, that doesn’t matter” The girls spoke in unison, Eric tried to hide his smile once again mumbling that he found them talking in unison creepy.

Soon enough the trio made it to the Gryffindor tower and to the portrait of the fat lady, a name both Pandora and Hermione thought was offense but didn’t linger on the matter 

“What do we have here?” The fat lady asked, looking wary at Pandora and Eric  
“She’s a first-year, Professor McGonagall had pulled her aside to talk.”  
“Well does she know the password?" Eric hesitated, looking to Hermione

"Yes, Professor slipped it to me," Hermione said holding a piece of paper up, Pandora smiled when she heard Eric whispered out ‘Thank Merlin’

"Hermione, We should take a picture to send to our parents,” Pandora said, pulling her camera from her robes. 

“Oh but I look awful” Hermione whined  
“So do I so it's okay.” Pandora shrugged, gesturing to her bushy hair, and pink nose from trying not to sniffle.

"Here" Eric took the Camera from Pandora "I'll take one of both of you" Thanking him, Pandora goes to stand next to Hermione as Eric holds up the camera and tells them to smile. 

After the picture is taken, the girls share another hug holding tightly, knowing when they let go they won’t know when they’d be able to properly talk.  
“I’ll write to mom and dad tonight and send Medusa over so you can as well” Pandora informed her Friend, who nods against the shorter but now older girls shoulder  
“Goodnight Pandora” Hermione is the first to pull away  
“Goodnight Hermione” Pandora steps back and watches as Hermione whispers the password to the fat lady, Eric pats her back in a way of saying goodnight and to help her through the door.

There's a lull before Eric nods his heads and he and Pandora makes their way down the ever-moving staircases.

"You okay," Eric asks, they had spent most of the walk-in silence and were now almost to the dungeons.

"Just a little tired," Pandora answered, knowing that’s not what he meant.  
"You know what I mean"  
"Yeah, I do"

* * *

Hermione stepped through the portrait and for the first time since meeting Pandora, Hermione felt alone.  
She looks around the common room, seeing everyone must have gone to bed, Hermione sat on the couch in front of the fireplace and looks at the photo that Hermione is to send to her parents, though both girls are smiling Hermione can tell they were both a little upset in the picture as well and hopes that their parents aren’t able to tell.

“So what did McGonagall want with you?” A voice asks, popping up from behind the couch she was on and Hermione jumps, her hand over her heart as she tries to calm herself down, looking over both shoulders to see George on the left and Fred on the right of her.

“Why aren’t you in your dorm?” Hermione asked, and the twins smirked before climbing over the back of the couch, landing very ungracefully, next to her, making her bounce and get a sharp elbow on her leg. Hermione has to bite back pointing out they could have walked around.

“Well It’s not often a first-year gets asked to stay behind from McGonagall”

“Professor” Hermione corrects them, blushing slightly.

“So what was it about?” Fred asked, practically bouncing from wanting to know.

“Professor McGonagall wanted to talk to Pandora and me about being in different houses, she told off that we could sit together now and again,” Hermione told the twins, once more playing with her charm. “I just don’t understand why, I mean, we have so much in common, and I’m not even sure why I’m in Gryffindor, I thought for sure I would be in Ravenclaw”

“It’s the little things, people say that the reason why we end up in the house we do is because the hat is so magical that it can see through time and can tell what you’ll be more fitted for when you’re older,” George tells her and Hermione nods, it makes a lot of sense when you put it like that.

"Thank you guys, you didn't have to comfort me" Hermione thanks them, and the twins shrug it off.

"But be careful, even if Pandora is the one good Slytherin doesn't mean the rest are" Fred warns her. 

"Thank you, but I'll be fine, and so will Pandora, like I said she's tough" 

"Alright, now go along, ickle kiddies need their rest before class, your dorm is right up those stairs your room will have your name," George tells her, him and Fred pulling the first year up, making her stumble slightly. 

Hermione thanks them once more before walking up and going into the dorm with her and her dormmate's names. 

She sees her chest in front of her bed, and a desk next to it. 

She takes a seat at the desk and starts writing her letter to her parents and the Avery's

* * *

The pair arrived in front of the Slytherin common room door, it looked like it was made of stone with beautiful carvings, it had no knob and Pandora figured that was with most of the doors around here. Eric looked to Pandora, giving her a chance to speak

“What do I need to be prepared for?” Pandora asked, Nerves weaving themself in her voice  
"You’re not the first muggle born to be sorted into Slytherin, but you are the first in a while,” Eric tells her, mouth set in a grim line  
“So they're gonna hate me” Pandora states, rather than questions  
“They’re not gonna hate you, but there will be some that are not going to give you a chance. But no one is gonna give you too hard of a time, purebloods wouldn’t let it get out that they treat their housemate badly. So no one will give you a hard time, if they do, let me know, and I’ll take care of it.” Eric promised her.

“So I can be known as the tattletale?” Pandora asked eyebrow lifted and Eric pauses  
“Good point, Just tell me and I’ll keep a closer eye on them and when they are near you,” Eric said looking proud of himself for coming up with the plan  
“You know you can’t protect me forever,” Pandora told the other boy who looks to her, eyes hard as places his hands on her shoulders looking her in the eye  
“Pandora, I am gonna do what I can to keep you _and Hermione_ safe as long as I can” Pandora smiles, at least she doesn’t have to go through this alone, she nods and Eric releases her and tells the door the password, sickle, and they both walk through the doorway.

Pandora looks around and takes in her house for the rest of all her school years, it was quite [beautiful ](http://www.ambient-mixer.com/images_template/9/b/1/9b16a549c734a9f425ae5bfe726a7f43_full.jpg)and looked almost[ mid-evil.](http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111009144503/harrypotter/images/2/25/Slytherin-Common-Room-slytherin-14045963-635-600.jpg) Pandora figured that if she had to be away from Hermione at least she got this amazing home, and of course Eric.

Pandora walks over to Blaise on a green couch that was so soft when she sat on it, while Blaise's feet touched the ground while he sat, Pandora's feet dangled slightly above the ground.

"How are you?" Blaise asked, straight to the point.

"I'm okay" 

Eric walked up to the top steps in front of the door, a girl who looked to be the same age as him, also looking to be a fellow prefect, stands next to him, her hair jet black hair in a ponytail, her curls evident even pulled back.

"Hello first years and returning years, my name is [Gemma Farley](https://media1.giphy.com/media/xUOxeRI9lloe0i2Rri/giphy.gif). I am one of the prefects and I welcome you all to the Slytherin common room, we like to feel that our house has the aura of a mysterious, underwater shipwreck. We also see the giant squid in the Hogwarts Lake swim around the window. Here's a fun fact. Merlin was sorted in Slytherin and I want to tell you that not _everyone_ in Slytherin is bad. Every house has had some witches or wizards that go bad. I hope that puts your minds at ease. Also just to get it out there we have a muggle-born in Slytherin this year. I expect everyone to treat her well. If not I will go straight to the Headmaster. Am I understood?" Gemma states rather than asks, her voice hard as she looks around the room and there were a lot of people who didn't look particularly happy but they all nodded. 

"Okay, so it's now curfew which means bedtime. The boy's dormitories are to the right and the girls are to the left. First years know that your names and dorm mates' names are posted on the door. All of your stuff has been settled." Eric said as he looked around. "Have a good night everyone be ready by 8 tomorrow for breakfast," he explains and then walks over to the boy's side, and waves everyone to their dorms, 

Pandora walks until she sees her door, a small sign on it with the names Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, Daphne Greengrass, and Pandora Avery.

Walking into her room she sees her dorm mates gathering their sleepwear and heading to the bathroom, so instead of getting ready right away she walks over to her desk and begins to write the letter for her parents and the Granger's, 

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_So first off I'll tell you what house I was sorted in since I know you're dying to know. Slytherin. Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor. Neither of us was happy about it but I'm just glad that I have some friends like Eric and Blaise. I felt welcomed but there's only ever been 3 or 4 muggle-born in Slytherin, I guess that makes me special. I had Eric take a picture of Hermione and I, Hermione is going to include it in her letter. I can't wait for classes tomorrow, we get our class schedule tomorrow during breakfast. I'm really tired though so I'm going to end the letter here. I love you guys to the moon and back._

_~Pandora Avery._

Pandora looks at her letter and smiles, she left out the fact that some may not like her being in Slytherin, not wanting her parents to be worried.

Pandora lets Medusa out of her cage, giving her some pats and a treat, before sending her off to Hermione, so she could include her letter as well.

Pandora walks quietly into the bathroom to get ready for bed, her dorm mates' already asleep. Once she brushes her teeth and pulls her unruly hair into a scrunchy she gets into her four-poster bed and pulls the dark green curtains close and let's sleep take over.


	6. Chapter Six: First day of Classes

_Chapter Six: First day of Class_   
_September 2, 1991_   
_3rd P.O.V_

* * *

Pandora woke up from her sleep as she landed on the floor, it seems to become a habit of hers, looking around Pandora noticed all of her dorms mates are sleeping and then finally noticing the Clock on the wall above the door she saw that it was 6:30 in the morning, sighing she got up from the floor and throwing her blankets on her bed, she went and got some clothes out of her trunk and walked into the Dorms bathroom that was on the far side of the room, past the beds and across from the door.  
  
Pandora's bed was closest to the door with only her desk in between the bed of Pansy Parkinson, and across from Daphne who had Millicent Bulstorde next to her. Walking towards the bathroom, She opened the door to the Bathroom she notices all the details that she was too tired to note last night, like how on the far wall were four showers all closed off from each other and on the left was some cabinets and four sinks and then on the right wall were four wooden doors that were painted green with the silver door frame, toilet stalls.

Walking up to one of the bathroom cabinets, opening it she saw it had towels taking one she went and put her clothes in one where it had her name and went to take a shower.

The dorm bedroom door flew open "Good morning first years!"Gemma shouted, clapping her hands making even more noise as the younger girls groan "Come on, it is seven, you all have an hour to get ready to get to breakfast on time" She looked over everyone's bed but stopped when she noticed that Pandora's bed was empty "Where's Pandora?" She asked the other girls who now noticed their dorm mate was not in bed, 

"I'm not sure," Daphne said, Gemma looked to The other two girls who shook their heads. Gemma admits she was a little worry, after all, it's not every day a muggle-born is sorted into Slytherin, She was also a little worried cause she knew that she had already made friends with Eric and you do not want to get on Eric's bad side, Eric when mad was what other houses call a 'Classic Slytherin' dark and scary.

Just when Gemma was about to leave and check elsewhere the bathroom door opened and out walked Pandora's dress and ready for the day, Gemma let out a small "Thank Merlin " before asking Pandora why was she up, as the other girls walked past Pandora and headed into the bathroom.

"I always wake up early on school days" Pandora spoke quietly

"Oh okay," she watches Pandora put her bracelet back on and begins to Brush her hair, "Would you like some help?" 

"No, I, well If you could help me put the bow on that be lovely" Pandora said holding her hand out to give her the green bow

"Sure" Going behind her she put the bow in the small girl's hair, noting how bushy the young girl's hair is. "Where did you get the green bow?" 

"I bought it in Diagon Alley, It changes to your house color after you are sorted"

"Well, That's all done, I gotta head down, so Make sure you get down there soon so we can show you the way to the great hall" Pandora nodded as Gemma left. 

Pandora started to put her socks and shoes on when her dorm mates came out and left a second later,   
Pandora hums quietly as she double-checks her book bag Pandora stop humming as she turned and saw her dorm mate Daphne,

“I like that song, what is it called?” Daphne asked, a small smile on her face

“It’s a muggle song ‘End of the line’ by Traveling Wilburys” Pandora explained, watching carefully for any change in Daphne’s face.

“I’d have to find a way of checking out their music” She muses almost to herself, Pandora nods letting silence fill the room. Pandora looked at her dorm mate, noting her platinum blonde hair that she straightened this morning, she was also taller than, ‘taller than Hermione’ Pandora thinks, she is 4’9” Hermione has an inch on Pandora, while Daphne seems to have two, though she was skinnier than both of the girls.

“So you’re a muggle-born" Daphne wonders and Pandora nods “We’d have to talk more about music”

"Sounds good, I'm Pandora by the way" 

"Nice to meet you, I'm [Daphne](https://victoriaauthdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/The-Finder-Maddie-3.jpeg)" the two girls smiled before walking out.

Pandora walked out and saw Eric in the common room, sitting on the large plush seat,

“Morning" Eric said to Pandora as she waved to Daphne who walked out of the common room, promising to save her a spot. Pandora walks over to where he sat on the couch,

"Morning" 

"I see you're making friends," Eric said [smugly](https://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4i7g6w6YY1rph94p.gif)

"Oh shut it" They laughed as they walked out of the common room and to the great hall

* * *

Walking into the Great hall, she searched the Gryffindor table looking for Hermione, She saw her sitting around a few other first years she caught her eyes and they smiled before Eric dragged her over to their table, he sat on her left while Daphne sits on the right of her and question who she was smiling at, Pandora tells her that her best friend is another house. Pandora didn't eat much, only some toast and beans, Eric and Daphne tried to get her to eat more but she kept telling them she wasn't hungry, which was true, she could never eat much in the morning.

Soon the mail came and everyone was grabbing their letters, Hermione sat there wondering where her letter from her parents was, she knew that her parents learned how to owl,   
"What's wrong Hermione?" Fred asked as he took a seat in front of her and beside his twin, noticing her frown.

"I don't see my letter from my parents" 

"Well they are muggles, right? well, maybe they forgot how" George said trying to find a reason.

"No we got them a book about stuff like that and even let them get used to Medusa- Ohh, never mind I know what happened"Hermione nodded thinking

"Care to share?" 

"They sent it back with Pandora's owl, Medusa, so she probably got my letter as well" 

"What house is she in, your sister I mean," Seamus asked, and Hermione smiles at him,

"We're not sisters, just friends but everyone assumes we are sisters, it doesn't help that we live together," Hermione tells the Irish boy, not realizing her tone is coming off as very condescending. 

* * *

"Mail's here," Eric said as the owls flew over the tables, Pandora's owl came down Dropping Four letters on her plate before flying down and standing in between her and Eric 

"Hey there girl," Eric said petting her head  
Blaise walks over and sits across from Pandora, nodding his head in greeting before reaching over to pet the owl,

"Medusa, Here," Blaise said giving her some toast "Here"

Pandora smiles at her friend for feeding her owl, picking up the letter and seeing two for her and two for Hermione

"Why did you get Hermione's mail?" Daphne asked.

"We live together," Pandora said putting her mail in her bag but leaving Hermione's out

"You live with your best friend?" Daphne asks and smiles at Blaise "Hey, Daphne" She held her hand out to Blaise introducing herself to the boy.

"Blaise"

"Yeah my family's house burned down when I was seven so we stayed with them and it just sorts a stuck, but when we were eight we moved out, all of us, into a bigger house" Pandora explained to Daphne, Blaise knew it from first meeting the girls, and Eric heard it from Professor McGonagall   
  
"That's so cool, I mean living with your best friends"

"Yeah it is, Hermione and I bedrooms are right next to each other's" Pandora looked at Hermione's mail "Okay well she got a letter from her parents and mine, is my guest. So should I give them to her now, I mean, she would want them but you know" At their blank looks Pandora added "Different Houses"

"Ohh"   
"Yeah"  
"I say you go, and tell her you to plan on sitting with her for Lunch," Eric said with the other three nodding   
"Okay, I'll go give them, see you two in class," Pandora said to Blaise and Daphne "I'll see you later," She said to Eric who nodded and gave her a hug

"Tell Hermione I said hi"   
"Will do"  
"Oh me too!"Blaise threw in  
"Me three" Pandora looked at Daphne "What, so we haven't met but we could be friends later on so best say hi now" 

"Okay, See ya later" Pandora got up from her seat and watched as Daphne scoots closer to Eric and they start conversing about classes.

Walking over to the Gryffindor table passing the Hufflepuff table on the way that was between the Gryffindor and Slytherin, Pandora walked down on the left side of the table that was next to the Ravenclaw table and also the side Hermione was on, She felt people looking at her, but not wanting to appear scared she held her head high and she kept walking until she got to her friend, hearing Hermione, tell other first years about Pandora, who cleared her throat which set all eyes on her 

"What do you want Slytherin" Ron growled, Pandora gave him a funny look 

"Bringing my friend her mail...Redheaded kid, I don't know" Pandora Replied slowly as if she was talking to a child, She turned back to Hermione who had just jumped up and pulled her in a hug that she happily returned. 

"I missed you!" Hermione said ignoring the outraged gasp from the table   
"I missed you too Mione," Pandora said pulling out of the hug a second later "Here's your mail, mum and dad sent it back with Medusa"  
"Thanks" 

"Your sister is a Slytherin!" Ron's voice rang through the hall, Pandora looked to Hermione seeing her roll her eyes   
"He's not your friend is he?" Pandora whispered but not good enough as it made the twins laugh,   
“No, Ronald, as I was just saying, we're not sisters, she’s my friend" Hermione explains looking down at Ron.

"You live with your best friend?" Fred asked Pandora rolled her eyes as Hermione nodded  
"Why?" Harry spoke up 

"Eh, it's a long story," Pandora said before turning back to Hermione, "I was thinking we could eat lunch here today? Oh and I am gonna write to my parents tonight, will you like me to send Medusa over so you can mail yours too?"   
"Both things sound good" 

"Alright. Oh and Blaise, Eric and my new dorm mate Daphne says hi  
"Tell them I said hi, have I met Daphne?"  
"No, but she said you will most likely befriend so yeah, Oh and hello twins whom names I have forgotten and hello Neville" They smiled at her and utter a quick 'Hi'  
"I'm Fred. This Is George" Fred said   
"Right, sorry"   
  
"Alright, let's head to class early," Hermione said, picking up her book bag and waving to her housemates  
"See you later," Pandora said to the Gryffindors, walking away with her friend and leaving the hall.  
  
Pandora and Hermione walked out of the Great hall and looked at a clock on the wall that read 9:35, they looked at the schedule they were given when they had first sat down at breakfast and they saw that Hermione had charms with Hufflepuffs and Pandora had herbology with Ravenclaws, both at 9:45 so they parted ways.

Pandora ran into Blaise and Daphne, shortly after and they begin to talk about how excited they were for classes, Daphne most of all as she loved plants "I was talking to Eric about some of it, I really can't wait"

"Oh and before I forget, Hermione said hi Blaise and hi Daphne, She thinks you guys could be friends too" Pandora smiled to her new friend

"Cool, can't wait to properly meet her." Daphne said, not realizing how much that meant to Pandora, neither girls really had friends before, and Daphne so easily accepted them, and their muggle-born statues meant a lot "What do you think we will learn in herbology?" She asked looking over To Pandora who was Between her and Blaise   
  
"Not sure, it could just be what we are going to learn this year"  
"Hmm I hope we get to do some hands-on work, that'd be great"  
  
"I hope we get to learn to do some spells in the other classes" Blaise joined in as they got to outside the classroom, walking in Pandora saw that some other students were already there, Pandora looked but didn't see anyone she recognized, the three of them walked over to an empty table still placed in between Blaise and Daphne.   
  
Soon all the first-year students were there and some were talking, playing with their wands and reading Pandora was one of the few who were reading, when a door opened in out came an older woman, with short curly grey hair, and a bright cheerful smile  
"Good morning class and welcome to herbology, I am your teacher Professor Pomona Sprout, and Today we are going to talk about and look at some plants" Professor Sprout spoke in a clear warm voice but still loud enough to be heard "I am also the head of the Hufflepuff house" she added as she turned her eyes to sweep over her students "Today's lesson we’ll be learning about puffapods, so please take out your notebooks to take some notes” Waiting a few moments till speaking again Professor Sprout watched as they placed their notebooks and quills out in front of them "Everyone got their items?"

"Yes ma’am" the first years mumbled  
"I can't hear you?"   
"Yes ma’am," The students said smiling brightly at their herbology teacher who seemed to be nice.

“The Puffapod is a magical plant that produces large pink seed pods full of shining beans, which instantly flower when they come into contact with any solid object.” The professor tells the class holding up what kinda looks like a large yellow egg with different colored spots, it also had some vines and leaves at the bottom of it “Can anyone tell me some of what the puffapod can cause” a few hands were raised, including Pandora and Daphne who did so eagerly and Professor Sprouts, points to Daphne who looked slightly smug at being picked 

“The spores of a Puffapod can cause dizziness.” Daphne tells her “It is also assumed that Trolls appear to be allergic to Puffapods, sneezing whenever they bloom.” Daphne tells her teacher who claps 

“Very good!” She cheered “5 points to Slytherin” Pandora grinned at her friend. “For answering correctly you get to hold it first, go ahead and put on some gloves dear, the rest of you do the same if you wish to have a turn” The Ravenclaws excitedly tugged on their gloves while the Slytherin seemed to do so in a more calmly manner, but Pandora could tell how excited Daphne truly was. 

“Now be careful not to let the plant touch any solid item, only hold it in your hand, or else it would bloom and we don’t want that just yet.” Professor Sprout said, handing Daphne the plant who looked at it in wonder, lifting it close to her eye level to look at all the details. Much too soon for Daphne’s liking she passes it over to Pandora for her to look at it as well, who then passes it on to Blaise and so on until everyone gets a turn and it’s back to Professor Sprout who continues the lesson showing just how they bloom.  
After the class ended the first years pile out before going on to their next class, this one seems to be shared with Hufflepuffs.

* * *

Pandora and her two friends walked to the Great hall stopping right before they entered and stood by the door waiting for Hermione, soon the three of them took a seat against the wall, all the walking around the castle seemed to be getting to them.  
Eric and Gemma were heading to the great hall together when Eric spotted the three of them, parting ways with Gemma who just waved to the group before heading in.

“Hey what are you guys doing out here?” Eric asks, looking down at the group in front of him “You do know all the food is inside, right?”

"We're waiting for Hermione," Pandora said   
"I shall wait with you," the fifteen-year-old said, sitting down by the three friends, Pandora seemed to always be between Blaise and Daphne so Eric sat next to the blonde and processed to ask her how herbology went and found himself deep in conversation with the young witch he doesn’t even notice Hermione walking up till he hears her voice.  
  
"Why are you guys sitting on the floor?" Hermione asked standing in front of them  
"Waiting for you," Pandora said tugging Hermione down on the floor with them,  
"How was class?" Eric asked  
"It was good, and yours," Hermione asked curiously tilting her head,   
"It was good, learned stuff, but mostly a welcome back to Hogwarts"   
"Same here, only it is Welcome to Hogwarts'" The first years nodded when a low rumble sound from Blaise's made them realize they should head in soon,  
  
"We should eat lunch," Blaise said, rubbing his growling stomach.  
"Sounds like a plan," Hermione said jumping up with Pandora's camera that she saw the girl had in her bag."But first a picture!"   
"Say Magic"  
“Magic” The four smiles arms wrapped around each other with, taking the picture that just came out Hermione handed it to Pandora who placed it in her Butterfly journal,  
  
"What's that?" Daphne asked  
"Oh just a notebook I got for my birthday"  
"Cool, you like butterflies?"   
"Yeah, I have a birthmark that kinda looks like a butterfly, so it’s always been my thing." Pandora smiled, Standing up with the help of Eric who then helps Daphne up.  
  
"Hi, I'm Daphne" She held her hand out to Hermione's  
"Nice to meet you, I'm Hermione," Shaking her hand Hermione then turned to Blaise "How have you been?"  
"I'm good, how bout you, the house treating you well?"  
"Y-Yeah" Pandora didn't miss the stutter in her voice  
"What happened, are they being mean, are they making fun of you, your blood? your smarts? your hair? your teeth, I told you that we should talk to auntie Jackie and uncle Steven about getting you Braces" Pandora said looking at her friend only to see her look a little mad "I talked to much again, didn't I?" She nodded, Eric whistled   
  
"And that is our cue to leave, we'll see you at dinner," Eric said guiding Daphne and Blaise to the Great hall leaving Pandora and Hermione,  
“...I love you"Pandora said, a cheeky smile on her face that she hopes will make Hermione less peeved "OW!" it didn’t work, Hermione punched her in the shoulder  
"It's okay, I missed you too" Hermione sighed looking at the door "Ready?"   
"Are you?" They looked to each other for a moment and then smiled taking the hands of each other   
"Let's do this," They said, pushing the door open and walking into the great hall.  
  
Pandora could feel people's stares as they both walked to the Gryffindor table, she could also feel the sweat on her hands, she couldn't tell if it was hers or Hermione's but with a glance to Professor McGonagall and seeing her looking at them with a proud smile, Pandora held her head up and tighten her hold on Hermione's hand who was already looking up, determined to get to the table.  
Getting to a semi-empty place at the table they sat down side by side, everyone was quiet, staring at the two, they looked across the table to see the Harry Potter and the red-headed kid from earlier sitting next to in front of them and some other first-years she saw while bringing Hermione her mail.  
  
"Hi," Pandora said Sweeping a fallen piece of hair out of her face, Neville smiled at them from his seat next to Harry but it was still quiet from everyone else. Pandora turned to Hermione and whispered "Do they speak" She asked looking at the red-headed kid and the boy who lived  
"Just talk about something they like"  
"Like what"   
"Quidditch?"Pandora nodded and turned back to the two boys, went to speak but stopped herself and she tried not to jump when George suddenly sat down next to her and Fred next to Hermione who was on her right. “What's Quidditch" she tries to whisper to Hermione.

"You don't know what Quidditch is?" one of the twins asks and Hermione looks down and shakes her head. She hated not knowing things. "It's easy to understand really, You have 7 players and 3 balls. There is a Keeper. They have to guard the three hoops so the Quaffle doesn't go through. Then you have 3 Chasers who would throw the Quaffle into the other team's hoops. Then two Betters have to beat the Bludger away from their teammates. Then last is the Seeker who has to catch the golden snitch. If they catch it the get an instant 100 points and the games are over." He says.

George and I are on the Gryffindor team as Betters," Fred tells them and they nod.  
Pandora had heard of it but never understood it until right after Fred explained it. Hermione understood as well.  
"Where do you play this?" Hermione asked and George buts in leaning forward to look at Hermione around Pandora.  
"Out on the Quidditch field is. It's an amazing game. Being up in the sky just playing." he tells the girls.  
"What do you mean up in the sky?" Pandora asks.  
"We have broomsticks," Fred says and Hermione's eyes open wide.   
"Do people fall off of them?" she asked and the boys nodded.  
"Mostly when we play with Slytherin because they always cheat," George says and Pandora looks down and just picks at her plate no longer interested in the conversation. ‘Why did the hat sort me into Slytherin?’ She thinks to herself, wishing for a way to break down the logic of a magical hat.

Hermione notices the silence of her best friend and looks over at her and sighs.  
Catching onto their sudden sadness, The boys shared a look, well all but Ron who was stuffing his face with food, Harry Spoke up  
"S-So, um, I never got your name," Harry said looking to Pandora, who looked up slightly shocked that he was speaking to her, She remembered how he begged the Sorting hat not to be in Slytherin,   
"Oh...I'm Pandora, You?" She knew who he was but thought that he never got to tell people his name with him being who he is. Harry seemed relieved but saw Hermione smile at them and answered  
  
"I'm Harry, So why do you to live together?" The girls shared a look and smiled   
"Well when I was seven, my family's house burnt down," Pandora said  
"So my family took them in since we been friends since like babies"Hermione cut in  
"And It just kinda stuck, I mean neither of our parents could have any more kids"   
"And let's face it, Pan, even if they could, we were a handful as it is"  
"That is true, anywho and we lived in her house till we were eight and both our family moved out and into a bigger house" 

"And our bedrooms are right next to each other” Pandora and Hermione said together, shocking the table at how smoothly they explained it, even Ron who only ever seen Fred and George be able to do that.  
"So what do you call each other's parents," Fred asked, scooping more macaroni on his plate.  
"Well it’s kinda a mix, sometimes it’s just their names or it’s aunt Jackie and uncle Steven or mama Jacks and papa Steven just kinda depends"   
"And I do the same with her parents," Hermione said looking to Pandora  
"Well, sorry about your house," Neville said, hands twisting nervously, he hated the thought of a house burning down.  
"It's okay, We had put most of the important stuff like photos in the basement and it was still intact” The group nodded, glad to hear they didn’t lose everything.

  
"So, Pandora, Hermione, what are some things you like to do?" Fred asked   
"Um, we like to read, learn new things," Hermione said looking to Pandora for more things  
"And we like the music we both play an instrument, and I like to take pictures"  
"She always carries her new camera around" Hermione chimed in.  
"I like to capture the moment," Pandora smirked, as some of the moments she wants to capture involve her pranks.  
"And there are other things we like but those are just the main ones," Hermione told them  
"Do you have your camera with you now?" Fred asked the same time as George asks  
"What instruments do you guys play?" The girls smiled and shared a look as if to say 'You answer Fred, I'll get George', and the twins knew this look very well as they had used it many times.

"Yes I do, wanna see" Pandora spoke to Fred as Hermione told George and everyone else at the table what they played  
“I play the piano and Pandora plays the violin.”  
  


“Pass this to Fred"Pandora handed it to Hermione  
“Here you go Fred” Hermione handed him the camera

"How did you know who is who?" Neville spoke up from his seat across from Pandora and George.  
The girls stilled, glancing at each other and then the twins and back to Neville, "I have no clue..."Hermione said thinking, Pandora made a face like she was thinking"I guess we just..."   
"Knew," both girls said at the same time, shrugging they just shook their heads and their curly hair shook as well.

"Even mum, can't tell them apart " The young redheaded boy nodding to the twins, not stopping his eating, but Pandora offered him a smile still, but slightly ruined when her nose is scrunched up  
"Guess we just got a talent," She said "I'm Pandora, and you are?" but all he did was grunt out his name is Ron and went back to eating, Pandora's smile flattened as she looked to Hermione confused, Hermione sighed leaning in and whispering to Pandora, who nodded and frowned, but her eyes seemed sharper.  
  
"You should eat more than that, Hermione" Pandora spoke pointing to Hermione's plate that held very little mac and cheese, with her fork  
"Look who's talking" Hermione shot back looking at Pandora’s plate that held a small salad and a small number of apple slices, rolling her eyes Pandora grabbed another spoon of mac and cheese and placing it on Hermione's plate, Hermione gave her a look and placed some Mac and cheese on Pandora's plate.  
  
"Pandora, Hermione," Fred said to the girls, when they turned to him he held up the camera "Smile" The two girls smiled, as he took the picture.  
"You know there is a way to make it so the pictures move," George said peeking at the photo Pandora was now holding with her camera, he could see himself in the photo looking at Pandora.   
"Really?" Hermione asked as Pandora put the camera away

"Yup, all you need is this fairly easily made Potion and then letting them soak in it, There's a book about it If you want to you can go to the library later and check it out, It's called something like 'The every day magic' Or something like that"   
"We'll have to check that out, thanks" Pandora smiled, George handed her the photo he plunked from her hands and Pandora showed it to Hermione  
"Here I already got one of you"  
"I got one of you too, "Hermione said taking a drink of her pumpkin juice   
"Send it to your Parents maybe?" Fred suggested   
"We just sent them one, if we send them this one, they would want one every day," Pandora said knowing her Family's odd behavior.

"Give it to a friend?" Neville squeaked out  
"Okay."Pandora pausing "Who?"   
"Anyone but me, I'll just ruin it or lose it," he said with a blush growing on his cheeks.  
"Okay, Maybe Eric?" Pandora turned to Hermione  
"Sure". After eating the bell rang and everyone got up and left the great hall, Hermione and Pandora walked close by each other when a girl their age in blue robes and black hair, knocked Hermione down, 

"Watch where you're going, beaver teeth" Hermione looked and Pandora went over and helped her up.  
"You okay Mione?"Hermione nodded "Don't listen to her?" Pandora said staring off to the way the girl went,   
"I know, but I was hoping that when we got here we wouldn't have to deal with girls like that anymore"  
"I guess they are everywhere, so looks like we can't have peaceful nights anymore" 

"What do you mean?"

"If you ever in a class with her lookout for a name, we are going pranking tonight, I'll send you a letter with details," Pandora said skipping off leaving Hermione to head to her next class as she went to hers.

As Pandora brushed her hair she sat at her desk she had just written a letter to her parents and Hermione's when her owl, Medusa, came in with three letters she grabbed all three and set aside the ones that said 'Avery's' and 'Ganger's' with hers she tied a piece of string around the four of their letter as she opened the one that had 'Pandora' on it, written in Hermione's neat writing, 

"Her name is Marietta Edgecombe, she wasn’t in my classes so all I know is that she’s in Ravenclaw and is in her second year. What's your plan, Butterfly?" Pandora smirked and got started writing out Her plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be sure to give the story to love, feel free to comment, I will fangirl with you and take your suggestions and ideas. ~ OffKeyPanda


	7. Chapter Seven: Midnight walks

_Chapter Seven: Midnight Walks  
September 4, 1991  
3rd P.O.V_

* * *

It was now the end of the day and the girls had just gotten out of classes. They decided to go to the library to do some research and to plan their revenge. Pandora was more interested in figuring out what she was going to do whereas Hermione only wanted to do homework and study. After some persuasion Pandora got Hermione to put the book away to help her come up with something. Hermione while sometimes actually enjoys pranking, only really does it when she's around with Pandora.

"So I was thinking we would do something to get her in the morning. So everyone can see." Pandora says looking over at her best friend. Hermione nods hoping nothing will be too over the top.

"What about this?" Hermione asks pointing to a recipe for ‘Belch powder’ in a pranking book they found and Pandora smiles widely.

"Perfect. We’ll put it over the Great Hall doors and try to find a way to keep it hidden, she’ll walk under it and boom." Pandora says planning it all out. Hermione smiles too and they keep planning how they will do this. Only they didn't know that the two boys heard everything.

* * *

_~Fred Weasley's P.O.V~_

Fred and George were in the library planting pranks in some school books that would explode ink once open, they were only placing them in books for third years. Neither was sure why, as they normally didn’t mind pranking first years but decided not to.

Suddenly Fred heard voices talking about something diabolical that sounded like a prank. He closes the book he had just finished setting up and puts it back on the shelf and pulls George closer to the voices. 

"Would you be able to make the belch powder?" one girl says.

“Yeah, I think we have all the stuff” the other girl answers “But how would we get it above the great hall, how do we make it stick and not be seen”

“We’ll continue looking up different spells, hopefully, we’ll find something to use” The first girl responds and Fred moves some books out of the way so he and George can see who is speaking, and both are shocked to see Pandora and Hermione surrounded by piles of books and are hunched over the same one

“I’m starting to like these girls more and more every day” George whispers to his twin who smiled at him

“Never thought you would say that about a Slytherin, did'ja” Fred whispers back, a cheeky smile on his face.

"So when are we doing this again?" Hermione asks and Pandora answers with "Tonight."

"Georgie I know what we're doing tonight," Fred tells his twin who smiles with a nod, but soon both were ducking down when the girls started to get up

"Now I'm going to go look for that book George told me. I want to find it! It would be very neat to see pictures move like a movie. Come on Hermione you can do your homework tomorrow since we have no classes then." Pandora says as she pulls Hermione out of her chair and away from where they were. 

* * *

_3rd Person P.O.V_

Hermione is in her dorm as she mixes all the Ingredients for Belch Powder which includes a small part of a mummy, Mastick, Red Myrrhe, Olibanum, Ammoniacum, Oppopanax and Bdelium (2 drachms of each), 2 pounds of Vitriol, 2 pounds of Honey, half an ounce of Tartar and 3 gallons of Aquavitæ.  
According to the book all she had to do is mix it all, smashing it into a powder and let it sit for a few hours.  
Hermione shoves the Calderon under her bed just in time for her roommate, Lavender Brown to come in to tell Hermione she was heading down for dinner and invites her along for the walk, Hermione agrees as she is still trying to make friends with more of her house (as per Pandora's request)

* * *

Pandora walks into the great hall and sits next to Eric who has Daphne to his right. Pandora mostly picks at her food, normally she’s not one to be nervous about a prank but she wasn’t sure about Hogwarts, would they expel her or just take house points, she had no idea, Nerves leading her to not be hungry and ends up just picking at her food.

"Are you okay Pandora?" Eric asks, pulling away from his conversation with Daphne.

"Just a little tired is all. I think I might go to bed early." Pandora said as she started to stand up but Eric pulled her back down, insisting she eats first.

Pandora gets a small bowl of vegetable soup, making Eric frown and placing a small plate of salad in front of her as well.

Pandora remembers the photo she has of her and Hermione and gives it to Eric, explaining that both her and Hermione had one already, Eric thanks the girl pulling her into a side hug.

After eating she waves to Hermione as she, Daphne and Eric who are also done walk out of the great hall to the Slytherin common room together, despite Pandora wanting to get some sleep before sneaking out, she finds herself sitting in an armchair next to a love seat where Daphne and Eric sat and the three of them talk.

“Hermione’s birthday is towards the end of September so both she and I are ahead of our class,” Pandora tells Daphne as Eric already knew this and shares his birthday is the 11th of June. 

“Actually, my birthday is October 17th” Daphne shares, looking at her freshly painted nails.

“Oh so you’ll be twelve as well” 

“Actually, my family had some things go down so I wasn’t able to start Hogwarts when I was supposed to” Eric and Pandora shared a look, Eric placing his hand on the blonde’s shoulder, silently letting her know she could share with them. “I’m already twelve, I’ll be thirteen in October,” Pandora looked at her friend, shocked that she was closer to Eric’s age than her own.

“That explains why you acted older, and look it as well, I figured it was the pureblood...training,” Eric tells the girl looking like he was trying to find the right word, causing to Daphne to chuckle  
“Oh, it did have to do with the brainwashing as well.” Soon enough the trio was yawning and headed up to their dorms, Daphne going to sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, but Pandora only lay on top of her blankets to take a nap before going to meet up with Hermione.

* * *

Waking up, Pandora, looked to the clock and saw that it read 1:30 am, Hurrying to find her slippers and putting them on, she grabbed what she needs as well as grabbing her wand as she sneaks out of the dorm room, followed by sneaking out of the common room.

Once far enough away from her house Pandora whispers out the spell her and Hermione and she learned not too long ago, “Lumos" her wand glowed and she began to head towards where she knew the Gryffindor tower was to meet up with Hermione.

* * *

Finally getting to the tower, fighting the moving staircase who seemed to be against her, Pandora stands next to the lady portrait, waiting for Hermione to come out with the supplies, as she had the majority of what they figured they needed.  
Pandora only needed her wand and her book, which she had in her black sweatpants.

Hermione made her way out of her house and greeted her friend, who saw they were practically wearing the same sleepwear, black sweatpants, but Hermione what looked to be one of their father's large shirts, while Pandora wore a black tank top, Hermione also had her bag, Pandora assumes that hold the rest of what they needed.

Hermione sat the cauldron down, it was tad heavy empty but with the powder, it was worse.

"You got the stuff, Otter?" Pandora asked using their code-names 

“Yep” Hermione answered, "Butterfly, Should we try to levitate it to The great hall?" 

"If we both do it, I say so, good practice" 

"On Three?"  
"On Three" Pandora nodded, holding her wand in her hand once more  
“One" Hermione held her wand out  
"Two" Pandora held out hers getting ready to say the spell  
”Three," The two girls said together pointing their wands and saying the spell "Wingardium Leviosa" The Cauldron began to float as both girls smiled at each other and began to walk down the stairs, not noticing the pair of redheads sneaking out behind them.

Fred and George listen to the two girls from behind the fat lady. Fred nods to George and they both walk out quietly making sure that the girls didn't know that they were being followed. They had their wands at their sides just in case the girls lost consecration, which happened halfway to the great hall, as Pandora sneezed and brought her hand up to cover it.

"Wingardium Leviosa" George called out, careful not to be too loud and the cauldron floats up right before it falls.

Hermione and Pandora froze, looking at each other, Hermione lowered the cauldron to the floor with George’s help as he and Fred walked closer to the girls who had not yet turned around

"Oh, Cra-" once again Hermione slapped her arm, cutting her friend off with a stern look.  
"Ouch!"  
"Don't swear!"  
"Don't hit!" 

"Ahem" Fred Cleared his throat, The girls turned around with pink cheeks 

"Hey F-Fred, G-George, Whats u-up?" Hermione asked, stepping in front of the Cauldron with Pandora.

"We know what you guys are doing out here"  
"A-And what would that be?" Pandora asked placing a hand on Hermione's arm who was trying to act like it was no big deal, The girls are used to doing their pranks alone and when one no was around, so they don't really get caught or in trouble often, actually never.

"Pulling a prank," George said looking past their shoulders and to the belching powder “An impressive one at that" Pandora and Hermione sighed, but Pandora was also a little flattered

"What will it take for you two not to tell?" Pandora asked, slightly annoyed.

"We want in"

"huh?" Fred and George Smiled at their reaction 

"Well you just so happened to have been overheard by not one-"Fred said  
"But two of Hogwarts best pranksters," George said, both twins bow jokingly, the girls shared a look and curtseyed to the boys 

"And you two have overheard two of Hogwarts most Talented," Hermione said  
"Amazingly Smart, and-” Pandora started  
“Lovely pranksters" Hermione smiled at them, the four of them shared a laugh "Thank you, George, for catching the Cauldron, but no offense but we work alone" 

"Oh come on, you need our help," Fred said, The girl's jaw tighten and eyes harden and Fred and George Gulp knowing they had said something wrong

" _We_ don’t need anyone's help" The girls hiss at them and turning around and picked up the Cauldron and Carried it to the Great hall mumbling about 'Boys' and 'Stupid' 

George looked to his twin brother and saw his shocked expression  
"Mate, this is why I should do the talking" George clapped a hand on Fred's shoulder "Come on let's follow them" George walked off with Fred trailing behind him. 

* * *

"Can you believe them" Hermione hissed to her friend, face scrunched up in annoyance  
"It was only Fred who said it, but no, I mean who does he think is basically calling us weak!"  
"I know right, I just wished we could prank him" Hermione only really pranks anyone when she is peeved.  
"Why can't we Otter?"  
"Butterfly, are you kidding, he's a prankster, you don't prank a prankster for two reasons; one) It's like the girl code, you don’t prank a prankster, it's not cool, and two) he might prank us back, and we can't get involved in a prank war, we got to do school," Hermione said and Pandora nodded agreeing. 

"I guess, You got the book with the spells to make sure we got it right?" 

"Yup right here" Hermione handed her the book from her book bag as they began to flip through it, "Okay here are the spells we need, You got your notebook? It has the plan written down on it"

"Course," Pandora said taking it out of her pocket her sweatpants and handing it to Hermione who opened it up and flipped through it, Hermione saw all of their other notes from their others pranks and Hermione noticed that Pandora had added on a few prank ideas, but before she could read it, Pandora ask if she found it, messing with the powder cafe not to inhale any.

"Ah yeah, it's right here" Hermione flipped to the page that held the notes for the prank and pulled out what they were using as a bookmark, which was a small baggie of flattening flowers. 

"Now how do we do this?"Pandora asked, looking at her journal on the table. 

"You write out your pranks," A voice said behind making the girls jump slightly but they didn't turn around knowing it was the twins, they heard them sigh behind them and walk around them, George on the left side of the table in front of Pandora and Fred on the right side in front of Hermione, 

"Look, I'm sorry" Hermione glared at him, turning the page so he can't see the plan. Fred sighed looking at George, who turned to Pandora

"Pan-" 

"Hermione, can you pass your bag so I can put the flowers in the powder" using flowers in their pranks was a tradition of theirs, it was just some pressed violets, that they always leave behind or in their pranks. 

"Of Course" 

"Are you guys gonna just pretend like we're not here?" Fred asked annoyed “I said sorry!” 

"Pandora do you think we should only add a few of the flowers so that way we won’t run out"

"I thought you didn't want to do too many pranks, while we're at school?" Pandora asked, not discouraging her friends, as she always encourages pranks.  
"You're a muggle-born Slytherin and I'm a bushy-haired Gryffindor, I think we are gonna be picked on," Hermione said giving her a look that clearly said 'We're smart, Use your brain'

Pandora nodded, looking annoyed and mad as the boys shared a look, they wondered how often these girls got picked on.

"What if we promise to give you full credit" Fred said causing Pandora to go wide eyes and Hermione drop the book

"No!” Hermione yelped out “Y-You can't let anyone know we are doing this, I-I mean If our parents find out, We're dead"

"No, we’d be beyond dead!" Pandora said clutching her book to the chest as if someone was going to take it from her and show everyone their secrets

"Woah, It's okay, we won't ta-" George said but was cut off by Fred

"Now hold on a second Georgie," Fred held a hand up to his twin, and turned to the girls "We won't tell if you let us pull this prank with you" The girls looked mad and Hermione marched up to Fred and stared up at him with a mad look 

"You're not going to blackmail us!" Hermione said pointing up to the older boy who was a good head and neck taller than her

"Too late, I am already" Fred spoke crossing his arms, Hermione crossed her arms as well, not breaking the stare

"We are not, gonna let you join!" 

"Well, you better or I'll tell on the both of you!" Fred and Hermione fought back and forth, as George and Pandora watched from across the table, Pandora turned to George

"Knowing Hermione, this could go on for a while," Pandora said, George turned to her  
"I hate to say the same, but knowing Fred It very much could."  
"When did you overhear us anyways?"  
"At the library, by the way, did you find the book?"  
"Yes, I did, thanks again, I'm gonna read it tonight" Pandora thanked the older boy.

"Should we do something?" George asked, looking at his twin who was still staring down Hermione who was doing the same.

"How bout, we allow you to join in on our prank, but you guys can't be smug, and you have to listen to us, and you can't ruin our traditions or be rude about them, got it?" 

"Sounds good. Should we tell them?" George pointed to the two Gryffindors who switched from staring at each other to arguing.

"After the deal, So pinkie swear" Pandora held out her right hand's pinkie, George looked to her hand then to her, holding his left hand out to Pinkie swear

"I swear," The two said together. Pandora Looked up to George, for a moment Confused

"What?" George asked

"How tall are you?"

"I-I don't know, Why?" Pandora said nothing, only sat up straight and placed her hand on top of her head and moved it towards George, till it bumped into his chest just below his collar bone. 

"God, I am so short" Pandora mumbled making George laugh, Fred and Hermione stopped fighting and looked over to See George laughing and Pandora Pouting with crossed arms

"What's up, Butterfly?" Hermione asked

"Why am I so short" Was all that she said but it was enough to make Hermione laugh with George and Fred, Pandora punched George in the arm, making his laughter come to an end but making the other two laughs harder.

"Hermione, George and I made a deal, we pinkie swore, so stop fighting with Fred and let's get a move on, I would like some sleep tonight" 

"So we don't have to work with them?" Hermione asked somewhat hopeful

"Georgie, What did I say about making promises to little ones, they know you can't see their eyes" Fred joked

"Oh shut up" Pandora stuck her tongue out, George clears his throat. "Oh right, so we are gonna work together just so you would stop fighting and we can go to bed" Pandora took note of the weird blush on Hermione's face.

"Let's go set up this prank" Pandora went over to the cauldron, picking it up and placing it on the table with George’s help, "Okay, Hermione did you bring the container to hold it in?" Pandora asked, not looking up from where seeing was inspecting the powder, again covering her face, but when she did not get an answer she looked up and saw Hermione sheepish look, she raised an eyebrow at her partner in crime

"I- ah -I thought you had it" Pandora's jaw dropped 

"How could I have it?! I was carrying my book and my wand"

"And I had the cauldron," Hermione said waving her hand to the pot on the table

"You also had your bag with the book,” Pandora said jabbing a finger towards her friends' bag on the table “plus all that kinda stuff we put in your trunk”

"No, we didn't Butterfly!"

"I think I would know if It was in mine" Pandora sassed off “god, did we forget it?” 

"I think we did," Hermione said and then smiled turning to Fred "And this is where you come in" 

"What do you need us to do?"  
"Do you guys have a tarp or something we could hold the powder in until we could dump it on someone?"  
"Yeah, but it's in our dorm room" 

  
"Well, try and get there and back as fast as you can, we need something for the prank"  
"Alright, I'll go get one, George you stay here, less risk with one of us running around," Fred said running out of the great hall. 

Hermione turned and picked up the butterfly notebook and laid it on the table motioning George to come closer and take a look,

"So this is what we plan to do," Hermione said and began to explain using the muggle pencil to point to things and explain the plan.

"This plan is really good," George Said looking at Hermione, she had just gotten done telling him what they were planning on doing.

"Thanks, we thought of this for a while but we could never do it at our old school"

"Why not?" 

"Well we couldn't set it up when everyone was watching and we couldn't skip class, and unlike Hogwarts, we can't use magic so to get it above a door and to pull the rope would be harder cause they would have caught us" Hermione explained, once again in her know it all voice, not fully realizing it, but George didn’t say anything, probably realizing she hadn’t realized.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense, well you get to do it now," George said with a cheeky smile"So who's the one belching?"

"Second-year Ravenclaw named Marietta Edgecombe," Pandora said, walking over to the two from where she was looking at the door, “She thought it would be a good idea to push Hermione and insult her.”

"Oh wow sorry Hermione" based on what was said earlier, George wondered how much these girls were messed with.

"It's okay" They all turned when they heard the Great hall door open just a crack, and Saw Fred slipping in along with a tarp who made his way over to the group.

"Okay, so Fred and George will raise it and hook it onto the hook there” Pandora points to some hooks above the door for what the girls assume is for a banner but would work nonetheless. “And then you guys will raise the cauldron to dump the powder in the tarp, as you could do it with more accuracy” 

“Pandora and I were going to try our hand at casting the 'Disillusionment' charm, but since that is a 3rd-year charm and while we have practiced it, do you think you guys could do it if we can’t?” Hermione asked and the twins said they could.

"How are you gonna make sure she's under it alone or she's not the first one in the hall?" Fred asked, and the girls watched as Fred and George used the wingardium leviosa spell, with ease to hook the tarp up, dumping in the powder and flowers, which Hermione assured Pandora that it wouldn’t ruin the powder.

"One of us is gonna make sure she's late, the truth is we don't know how so I was gonna wing it" Pandora shrugged.

"You don't have a plan?!" Hermione yelped

"Keep it down! and no, not yet" 

George chimed in before Hermione could start arguing with Pandora "We can make sure she is last. We know our way around the school better so we can make sure she will be last to enter that way you won't be late and no one would suspect you" Pandora and Hermione turned to each other and looked to each other almost like they were talking to each other with their minds before turning back to the twins and nodding, 

"Okay but you can't be late either, you would want to see this" The twins nodded at them 

"Okay, now time for the spell and bed," Hermione said, handing Pandora her wand that she left on the table. They had the tarp hanging but now they need to make it a little hidden.

"Are you guys sure you don't want us to do this?" the twins asked

"We wanna give it a go first, we have practiced but if we can’t you guys step in,” Pandora said with Hermione both grimacing at how much they were saying they might not be able to do a spell.

"Ready, B?" Hermione asked

"Always" They held out their wands and did the motions while quietly calling out the words to the 'Disillusionment' charm.

Pandora and Hermione shared a look, before looking back at their work proudly, The trap now had the same paint job as the wall behind it, so it blended in like a Chameleon 

The boys shared a surprising look, they had just learned how to use that spell this year.

"What do ya think?" The girls asked in a small shy voice, The twins gaped at the younger witches before answering 

"That was brilliant! We had just learned that one!" The girls smile at each other before stepping back looking at their work.

"Okay, so We wake up early like we always do, and then we meet up on the way here, And should we sit together?"Pandora asked putting their stuff together

"No, She might get suspicious," Hermione said looking up at the prank making sure everything was right.

"And when she gets under the tarp, what’s the plan again?"

"I was thinking of maybe sending out some kind of spell that will cut it or untie it, I'll look tonight"

"We could handle that" Fred spoke up

"So that way if anybody sees anything we can take the blame" George Explained

"You'd do that?" Pandora asked shocked, looking at George

"Yeah, I mean, you said your parents will kill you, our’s are used to it" Fred explained, sounding almost proud that their parents were used to them causing mayhem. 

"That's nice of you guys. Thank you" Hermione nodded her head at Fred, Before looking over at Pandora and grinning as she Jumped into her arms

"We did!"

"It will be awesome!" The girls quietly laughed, as they fell to the floor as the twins watched with a small smile, Fred grabbed the Cauldron, as George offered the girls a hand up.

"Come on we got to get some sleep"

Pandora grabbed her book slipping into her pocket.

"You guys walk Hermione back safely okay?" Pandora asked.  
"You can't walk back alone," Hermione said,  
"I'll be fine"  
"I can walk with her" George offered  
"You don't have to" Pandora turned to him

"It's fine, I know a few shortcuts back anyways" Pandora nodded giving up "Alright well let's go" 

They started walking before they got to where they had to split up Pandora and Hermione looked to one another before Pandora dove towards Hermione giving her a hug and mumbling words of good-nights and sweet dreams as they pulled away hands still held together by their pinkies, they smiled, a kinda sad smile, but one last goodnight and they drop their hands and turn around, and walked off to their rooms, one of the twins by their sides.

* * *

Hermione and Fred walked side by side in silence until Fred decided he had enough, looking towards the bushy-haired first year.  
"So Miss Granger. Why don't you tell me a little about yourself."  
"Well um, My Name is Hermione Jean Granger, I'm eleven, My birthday is on the 19th, I-" Hermione began to go over what she often tells adults who ask her the same question.

"No no no no no." Fred cut her off "That's not you. I want to know about you"

"What are you talking about? That is the real me, My name is-" 

"What are your nicknames, hobbies, the stuff that others might not know." Hermione looked at him out of the corner of her eye, quickly taking note of him, before letting a smile across her face.

* * *

Pandora and George walked together, down the stairs that lead to the Slytherin house

"So while We're walking, why don't you tell me some more about yourself?" George asked Pandora as they walked down the dark hallway only lit by the occasional torch. 

"What do you want to know?" 

"Depends, How much can you tell me before we reach your house." Pandora Grinned

"How about we just go back in forth asking questions" Pandora Suggested “so I know about you as well. Kinda like 21 questions”

* * *

"What's that?" Fred asked

"You never heard of that game?" Hermione asked shocked 

"No, I don't believe I have" 

"It's fun, Pandora and I often play to pass the time"

"Sounds fun, How do you play"

* * *

"It's super easy," Pandora said with a wave of her hand. "Normally you only ask 21 questions, but we normally just ask as many as we want, carrying over to the next day even," Pandora says looking up at George “basically you ask the other person a question like; do you have pets, but the trick is you also have to answer whatever question you ask, and you only get one pass a day and no asking the same question twice especially if they used a pass on it”

"Sounds fun, let's play. You go first" George told her.

* * *

"Okay. Um, I never got caught pranking, you?" Hermione stated, allowing Fred to respond.  
"What! Never?" Fred asked  
"Nope" Hermione grinned popping the 'P'  
"Okay, I've been caught once without George and twice with him," Fred tells her “My nicknames are Freddie, Forge and George"Hermione gives him a look, last she checked that was his twin's name, “I get mistaken for George so often I figured it’s just another nickname at this point.” Hermione chuckled at his logic” So what are yours” Hermione's cheeks got a tint of pink to them.

"Well, My favorite is ‘Mione but there is also my Pranking name: Otter and then my least favorite Hermy"

"'Pranking name?'" Fred asked  
"Ask on your next turn" Hermione laughed

* * *

“What is your full name?” Pandora asked, tacking on hers “Mine is Pandora Kristne Avery”  
“George Fabian Weasley “ He answered puffing out his chest. He always loved that he was named after his uncle, a war hero. “Favorite family member? Mine is Fred, obviously”

“Hermione” Pandora answered right away, “but if that doesn’t count probably my uncle Michael, my dad's brother, he passed away though, he was the one to introduce us to pranking" Pandora share this with a fond smile, not normally one to share these things.

* * *

"What's your favorite sport?" Hermione asked, “I don’t have one unless you count skiing, but I don’t do it as a sport, just for fun on a holiday.”  
"Quidditch" Fred answered right away before asking "What are 'Pranking names'? I can’t answer cause, I don’t know what that is”  
  
"When Pan and I are pranking, to make sure if we are caught or overheard, they don't know our names, kinda like code names"

"Smart, I guess ours would be Gred and Forge, but it’s obvious that it's us”  
"Thank you, and yeah not very discreet."

* * *

"What's your favorite spell or charm?" Pandora asked as they neared the common room “I don’t know too many just yet but I do like the Lumos charm”  
"I guess it would be the color-changing charm. It's a charm that can change anything a different color, which comes in handy when pranking, or needing a matching sock." He gives her a big smile after he hears her chuckle. 

"Cool, I can't wait to learn it"

"It’s taught in 3rd year, but you got the other 3rd-year spell, I’m sure you can learn it sooner, I could even help," George said, feeling his ears heat up, though unsure why as they stopped by the door to her house "Okay so my turn. What do you think of Hogwarts, I think it’s quite great, minus all the studies.”

Pandora grinned and whispered the password, cracking the door open just a bit as she was about to step through she looked to George

"It's magical" Pandora smirked as she walked through closing the door, Closing her eyes and leaning against the door in the exhaust, and that's when she heard a someone cough to catch her attention

* * *

Hermione and Fred got to the portrait where the Fat lady was sleeping and Fred placed his finger to his mouth signaling her to be quiet as he hummed a soft melody that made the Fat lady snuggle into her cloth some more in a deeper sleep before reaching up and opening the picture, once inside Hermione asked how he opened it. 

"A prankster never reveals his secrets" Hermione raised her brow  
"Don't worry I'll find out how by the end of the year"  
"Oh yeah, Is that a bet?" Fred challenge  
"Yes actually, it is." Hermione agreed, doing what she can to keep the melody in her head “I’ll know it by the end of the year”  
"We’ll see about that,” Fred said, wishing each other a goodnight, watching her spin on her heels to head to her dorms, while he waited for his twin.

* * *

Pandora sat on the green couch beside her dorm mate Daphne who was passed out after telling Eric of her disappearance.

"I was so worried I had no idea where you had gone, or if you were okay or hurt."  
“I told you I was sorry."  
"Where were you?"  
"Does that matter?" Pandora asked, not wanting to get in trouble 

"You were pulling a prank" Pandora Froze "You know, Slytherin may be good at hiding our emotions but we are also good at reading them."

"Look all I can tell you is a girl was mean to Hermione so I was helping her feel better" Pandora sighed "Now can we please go to bed? I'm tired." 

Eric sighed, rubbing his hand over his face as he nodded "Fine, but you better not have done anything too bad" Pandora just gave him a bleak look before standing up and shaking Daphne's shoulder only to find she's in a deep sleep.

"Shall we leave her to sleep down here?"  
"Nah, It's not comfy enough for that. I'll just carry her" Eric moved beside Pandora to pick up Daphne as they headed down the hall and into the girl's room. “For her being almost thirteen she barely weighs anything, almost as tiny as you. Almost” Eric smirk at Pandora’s, admittedly weak glare.

Pandora helped lay the blankets over her with Eric before she got into her bed with Eric covering her and closing the curtain before wishing her goodnight, and soon she was asleep, dreaming about changing the color of different things and laughing along with someone else.

* * *

“Pandora, psst,” Daphne says, shaking the sleeping girl, who, Daphne is pretty sure just growled. “Pandora, wake up, I didn’t think you were the type to sleep in” 

“What time is it,” Pandora asked, sitting up in her bed, wiping sleep from her eyes.

“It’s already 8, I was heading down to breakfast, you should hurry and get ready” Pandora thanks her and rushes to get ready, she’s never been one to wake up early, but normally she had Hermione to help wake her up.

“Where in Merlin's name were you last night?” 

“Whatever could you mean?” 

“I mean, I woke up, you were gone, I waited and then got Eric, who by the way wasn’t happy I waited half hour until I got him”

“I just couldn’t sleep so I went wandering” Daphne gave her a doubtful look but doesn’t push it, simply telling the girl to finish getting ready.

* * *

Hermione was back up at 6:30 and proceeded to get ready, waiting for some more students to get up before heading to breakfast. She was sitting in the common room, reading a book when finally more people started getting up, she put her book away and ready herself for breakfast when two tall redheads sandwich her between each other and start walking with her to the great hall 

“So miss Granger, George is gonna run and make sure a certain Ravenclaw is late to lunch so that means you get to take me” Hermione rolls her eyes and waves bye to George when he slips away from the pair.

“What an honor,” Hermione says deadpan, but Fred watches as the beginning of a smile starts to happen.

The pair gets the table, the few others that were already there looked at the pair wondering if they were friends but noticed Hermione's consistent eye rolls and Fred tugging on her hair and figured he was just bugging her, though they were surprised to see only one twin.

“Do you see Pandora?” Fred asked, not being able to turn for himself.

“No, I’m worried she does have a habit of sleeping in,” Hermione told Fred, who nodded but focused on getting some breakfast, once again pushing more options towards Hermione who only munches on some toast.

* * *

Pandora came out of her dorm to see Eric and Daphne talking and walked over to join them so they all headed to breakfast together.

Walking through the door, Pandora may have rushed her housemates as she tries to not look up where she knows the tarp is. 

Sitting down at the Slytherin table she looked to Hermione, noting that only one of the twins is with her, Pandora figures that the other was watching the Ravenclaw.

Hermione’s face lit up as she and Pandora waved to each other, it didn’t go unnoticed to Eric nor Daphne the looks that were sent the girls way, as they waved, Eric nodded to Hermione before steering Pandora to sit between himself and Daphne, the three of them facing Hermione, with the twins back facing them,

Eric does worry for a moment that the twin was bothering Hermione, having been warned about the Weasley twins when he first made prefect, but he could tell that Fred wasn’t bothering her, bugging her? Maybe but mean? No.

Everyone is eating breakfast while more people come in but a high loud noise drew everyone's attention to the door just in time to see a patch of powder drop down on Marietta Edgecombe, followed by loud burping from the girl, her face turned red as Weasley's hair as she continues to burp with all her body, a few Professors rush down to bring the girl to the hospital wing, and the girls share a sly smile, picked up only by two; Fred and Eric.

A while later George walks in and he and Fred move to sit with some of their quidditch friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, everyone, for reading.   
> Have a great day! wear a mask and wash your hands!   
> -Saira :)


	8. Chapter Eight: The Potions Masters and The Midnight duel

_Chapter Eight: The Potions masters and The Midnight duel  
September 4, 1991  
3rd P.O.V_

* * *

Pandora and Hermione were so excited that the classes were starting to pick up a little more, and happy to learn that unlike with their muggle school teachers that hardly cared about the teaching students nor the students learning. They quickly learned that each teacher is different. 

Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for, Daphne was interested in that, laughing lightly as she calls it her act of rebellion. 

Easily the most boring for Pandora but an interesting class for Hermione was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up the next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up, although in the end as much as Hermione loved learning about the history of magic, she agreed that if it was a different teacher that it would be amazing.

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class, he took the roll call, and Pandora was quite upset that not only she couldn't see Hermione but that she apparently wasn't even sharing the class with them. He was Eric’s favorite teacher.

The next teacher was again different when they reached Professor McGonagall Both girls eyes widened and had a sparkle and with a shared look from different desks, they knew that she was going to be their favorite Teacher and had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione and Pandora had made any difference to their match, Hermione grinned and gave a thumbs-up, when Pandora showed her, even though Hermione’s was better; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione rare smile, before checking on Pandora's work and nodding her head with approval and a not quite there smile, but Pandora will take it.

Everyone had been looking forward to Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went, causing Pandora to chuckle and Hermione to smile when they overheard that.

~  
When Friday came around Pandora and Hermione were eager, both wanting to meet Pandora's head of house and learn to make potions.

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name. "Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new -- celebrity." Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands.

Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class and Pandora saw his black eyes and saw the coldness in them, making her shiver slightly.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word -- like Professor McGonagall, Snape had you to be sure to catch every word -- like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger and Pandora were on the edge of their seats, Hermione looked desperate to start proving that they weren't a dunderhead.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Pandora saw Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air and Pandora followed, not wanting to look dumb in front of her head of house.

"I don't know, sit," said Harry. Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

"Tut, tut -- fame clearly isn't everything." He ignored the girl's hand, making Pandora frown.

"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat and Pandora raised her hand, not as high this time, keeping it almost hidden but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.

"I don't know, sit." "Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Harry Stared at Snape and Snape stared back, Pandora looked to Daphne, making sure she's seeing this as well. 

Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling, Pandora, who also knew this, decided not to raise her hand this time.

"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?" A few people laughed; Pandora saw Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased. "Sit down," he snapped at Hermione, Pandora's eyes went wide and found herself wanting to say something but not even sure what she would do, especially now with two pairs of hands on her, Daphne on her left holding her arm and Blaise leaning over his desk to push her shoulders down, "calm down" Daphne whispered to her, so Pandora had to sit still flaming, but when Hermione glanced her way she saw Pandora and sighed, sending a smile to the girl letting her know that she was okay.

* * *

_**The midnight duel:** _

Hermione sat in the dark in a pink bathrobe borrowed from her roommate, having left her favorite purple colored one at home, she waited in the common room reading a muggle book she had brought with her when she saw two small figures almost reaching the portrait hole, Hermione spoke up from her spot in the chair

"I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry," Hermione said flickering on a lamp nearby frowning, 

" _You_ " Ron sneered "Go back to bed!"

"I almost told your brother, Percy- he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this." She snapped

"Come on," Harry said to Ron. He pushed open the portrait of the fat lady and climbed through the hole. ' _You are not giving up that easy, Hermione Granger, Be a Gryffindor_ ' she thought to herself before following them out,

"Don't you _care_ about Gryffindor, do you _only_ care about yourselves, _I_ don't want Slytherin to win the house cup and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about switching spells" 

"Wouldn't you want Slytherin to win, Knowing how chummy you are with them, Isn't your sister one" 

"One; she is my best friend, not my sister, two; We have a challenge going, whoever wins the house cup wins and I rather not lose to her, because you decided to knock off all the points I've earn," I said crossing my arms and sicking my nose in the air

"Go away"

"All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, You're so-" Hermione froze as she turned back to the portrait of the fat lady to get back inside but found herself facing an empty painting. ' _The Fat Lady had gone out on a nighttime visit'_ she realized, _‘Now would be a good time to know how Fred was able to get back in’_

"Now what am I going to do?" Hermione asked shrilly, panicked by being locked out.

"That's your problem," Ron said, "We've got to go, we're going to be late." 

Hermione didn't know what to do. She kept looking back and forth at the wall then to the retreating boys, ‘ _Oh god, I know I'm going to regret this_ ’. Hermione quickly raced down to the end of the corridor where she had finally caught up to the boys 

“I'm coming with you" 

"You are _Not_ " 

"d'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up." 

"You've got some nerve -"Ron said quite loudly.

"Shut up, both of you?" Harry whispered sharply."I heard something" the trio leaned forward to hear

"Mrs. Norris?" Ron breathed, Squinting through the dark.

It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville, He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.

"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get into bed."

"Keep your voice down, Neville. The new password is 'pig snout' but it won't help you now, The Fat Lady's gone off somewhere"

"How's your arm?" Harry and Hermione asked at the same time

"Fine," Neville said, showing us his arm. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute" 

"Good - well, look, Neville, We've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later -" Harry stuttered out

"Don't leave me!" said Neville, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's passed twice already."

Ron looked at his watch then glared at Hermione and Neville, ' _What nerve_ ' the bushy-haired girl though thought,

"If either of you gets us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you."

Hermione opened her mouth to tell him she ought to use the curse on him, already knowing how before Harry hissed at her to be quiet and she realized that by doing so he might test it on her and Neville. Harry beckoned all of them forward. 

The four flitted along the corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn, Hermione had to admit she was a bit jumpy; she kept worrying that they’d run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. The four sped up a staircase to the third floor towards the trophy room. 

Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet, 'Humph, They probably set the boys up' Hermione thought bitterly, sticking her nose in the air. The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness, she looked at them and smiled there were a lot of names on them, all from the different house she would bet, Some from Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and even, Slytherin, ‘Pandora's house’ Hermione thought with a smiled.

The four kept to the edge, along the walls, keeping an eye on the doors at either end of the room. They took out their wands in case Malfoy leaped in and started at once. The minutes crept by.

"He's late, maybe he's chickened out" Ron whispered.

Then a noise in the next room made everyone jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak - and it wasn't Malfoy.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner" It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at everyone to follow him as quickly as possible; they quickly scurried but were sure to be quiet as they curried to the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when Filch could be heard entering the trophy room.

"They're in here somewhere, " The kids heard him mutter, "Probably hiding" 

"This way!" Harry mouthed to everyone and, Petrified, they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. Filch could be heard getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run -He tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor. 

The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle. 

"RUN!" Harry yelled, and the four of us sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following. They swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead, without any idea where we were or where we were going, Hermione couldn’t believe she was in this situation, she knew Pandora was gonna tell her she was insane for running around like this. The four ripped through a tapestry -Hermione trying to be careful not to cause too much damage not knowing the full meaning behind it and the four found themselves in a hidden passageway, Hermione wondered briefly if this was one of the 'Shortcuts' the twins mentioned, they hurtled along with it and came out near their charms classroom, which Hermione _knew_ was miles from the trophy room. "I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering. “I -- told -you,” Hermione gasped, clutching at her chest, “I -- told -- you.”

"We've got to get back to Gryffindor Tower," said Ron, stating the obvious "quickly as possible."

"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione couldn’t help but say to Harry, having finally having caught her breath

"You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you -- Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off." looking at Harry, Hermione thought he was going to agree that she was probably right, but he doesn’t.

"Let's go." It wasn't going to be that simple, they hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them, It was Peeves. He caught sight of the kids and squealed with delight.

"Shut up, Peeves -- please -- you'll get us thrown out." Peeves cackled. "Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please,” Hermione asked, Peeves looked at her and something sparkled in his eye, she wasn't quite sure what it was but he gave me a wink before teasing the boys some more, 

"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."

"Get out of the way," snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves, Hermione groaned already knowing that this was a big mistake. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR" Hermione stared in horror, but Peeves nodded his head towards the end of the corridor giving Hermione a smirk, looking Hermione noticed the door and quickly ducked under Peeves- the boys following her, and they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door -- and it was locked.

"This is it!" Ron moaned as they pushed helplessly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!" They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeves's shouts when an Idea popped into her head. "Oh, move over," Hermione snarled, really not wanting to get caught, she grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, 'Alohomora!" The lock clicked and the door swung open -- and they piled through it, shutting it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.

_"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying._

_"Quick, tell me."_

_"Say 'please."_

_"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"_

_"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice._

_"All right -please."_

_"NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Haha! Haaaaaa!" And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage_.

"He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay -- get off, Neville!" Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute. "What?" Harry and Hermione turned around -- and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, they were sure they had walked into a nightmare -- this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.

They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now we knew why it was forbidden. We were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Hermione knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant, Hermione stared at it, not knowing how she was going to explain this Pandora later without her wanting to come by, I looked at its four giant paws and quickly notice that It was standing on some type of trap door.

before I could focus on it some more we all fell backward -- Harry slammed the door shut, and we ran, we almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for us somewhere else because we didn't see him anywhere, but we hardly cared, as much as I don't want to be in trouble, I much rather not be dead -- I think all we wanted to do was put as much space as possible between us and that monster. we didn't stop running until we reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor 

"Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at our bathrobes hanging off of our shoulders and our flushed, sweaty faces.

"Never mind that -- pig snout, pig snout," panted Harry, and the portrait swung forward. We scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.

It was a while before any of us said anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never spoken again.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

I had got both my breath and my slight temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" I couldn't help it, I snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on.

"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads." I glared at him slightly

"No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."

I stood up, glaring at them. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed -- or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." and with that, I quickly went and climbed the stairs leading to the girls' dorm, but not before I heard Ronald "No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you?" But that's all I heard before I went up the stairs faster, ready to go to bed, I have a lot to talk about with Pandora tomorrow 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always pictured Pandora as looking like Ellen Page.
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed the story! I left an Authors note about which way I'm taking this story but got no reply so I'll just do my thang, Please feel free to comment or message me :D ~OffKeyPanda


	9. Chapter Nine: Hermione's Birthday

_Chapter Nine: Hermione's Birthday_   
_September 15, 1991_   
_3rd Pov_

* * *

Hermione's birthday was nearing, Pandora knew this it was only four days until then and Pandora knows Hermione is trying to play it cool but is upset that they couldn't spend the day together and with their family like they use to, they even would take the day off of school, Which is why Pandora has been making plans for a week on what to do for Hermione's birthday.

Pandora and Eric walked up to the Gryffindor tower, Pandora and Hermione had class, Eric didn't so he offered to walk the girls to their class.

The painting opened to reveal Hermione standing there, a red and gold bow in her hair like Pandora's

"Hello, I just have to run up and get my bag," She told her two friends inviting them in as she ran up the stairs to her dorms. 

Pandora didn’t really bother to look around and just stood next to Eric as they waited, also hoping to see the twins, they watched as Ron sneered at them as he walked through to get to class followed by Harry who at least shared a polite smile.

The twins came down the stairs surprised to see the pair waiting by the door, and George smiles, walking to the girl and her friend.

Pandora looked over to the stairs making sure Hermione's not on her way down as she pulled herself and Eric closer in the room and to the twins.

"Hermione's birthday is in a few days and Eric and I are making a cake and getting her gifts, so I’m calling in a favor, prankster between prankster, I need you to make sure Hermione have a good birthday, just make her laugh and not get homesick when I can’t,” Pandora asked the twins, ignoring Eric’s annoyed sigh at the mention of her hobby, but he still keeps an eye on the stairs. 

"Could we still give her something?” Fred asked and George tried not to make his surprise obvious as they hardly even gave their siblings gifts.

“Oh,” Pandora tried to hide her surprise as well “Yes, I’m sure she’ll love anything you give her.” Eric clears his throat turning back to face the three of them, nodding his head that she was coming down the stairs.

Pandora noted she was looking down in her bag so she quickly let out a laugh and started talking as if she was in the middle of a story  
“So I was locked outside as it started pouring, my Halloween make up was everywhere" 

"Telling that story again, are we?" Hermione asked coming up next to her

"Wait, so what happened next?" Fred asked, playing along and wanting to know what was next.

"Well, Hermione came down for some water when I was trying to open a window and instead of running or screaming like a normal 7-year-old, she runs to the kitchen and grabs a pan, waiting for me to get in to knock me out. Luckily When I screamed she realized it was me" the twins let out a laugh, Eric rubs his eyes at the thought and Hermione blushes, pulling on Pandora's arm "Let's get to class".

* * *

"Hey, so my mom just sent over the stuff to bake a cake so who wants to help me learn how to bake?" Pandora asked, dropping herself next to Eric and a Slytherin girl with dirty blonde hair sitting on the other end of the couch.

"You are asking the wrong man, Panda." Eric stated “I may know how to cook but baking is not something I can pull off,” He said pulling a face after he crewed on the feather end on his quill.

"Well, I don't know who else to ask" Pandora whined, shaking out her bushy hair, almost like she was purposely puffing it up.

"Not to completely give away the fact that I was listening in, even though I was, but my girlfriend is a really good baker, I could ask her to help if you want?" Pandora looked to the older witch on her left, she was probably 16, Pandora was mildly shocked at her dull offer of help, Side eyeing Eric to make sure her offer is legit before nodding

"Um sure, what's her name?" Pandora asked watching as a small almost shy smile crossed the Slytherin girl's face, 

"Elizabeth, but she's in Hufflepuff so I'll ask her for you," the girl paused looking up from her book briefly before looking down at Pandora "I'm Leo by the way, [Leonora Grace](http://68.media.tumblr.com/86143fa3750a35bb1c7cd12cb04ca301/tumblr_mevh5uuivd1rk0ty4o1_500.gif)."

"Pandora Avery," Pandora held her hand out, watching as the older girl took it in her pale, colder ones shaking it "Nice to meet you."

* * *

Pandora hates stereotypes and never tries to pass judgment too quickly, but the moment she met Beth, well, the girl's face practically screamed [innocent puppy,](http://68.media.tumblr.com/a813e8dfc140940e95091df513512288/tumblr_inline_mxkl1dZhJT1s2djns.gif) ' _Of course,_ ' Pandora wonder ' _her girlfriend seems like a badass, how innocent could she be_ '

So there they all were Eric, Daphne, Pandora, Beth and Leo all standing in the Slytherin kitchen, which was hidden past a few doors it was only sometimes used by the older students. As they got out everything they needed plus the things Pandora's parents sent them, Daphne joined them cause she needed help on her Muggle studies and Pandora said she could help while they baked and Beth quickly offered her help, informing them that she too is a muggle-born.

"Why does the Slytherin have a secret kitchen?" Pandora asked

"It's mostly used to practices potions," Eric said getting some bowls down, Pandora peered into one

"These are safe to use right?"

"Yeah, we always are sure to clean them good enough so we don't accidentally mix potions and well blow up".

"Okay so I have my notes, and my notebook and a list of things I could do my report on,” Daphne told the group sitting on the counter next to Leo who was filing her nails, a bored look on her face.

"What are some of the things on the list, sweetie?" Beth asked, a smile on her face as she ties her hair up, she's the same age as her girlfriend but gave off the aura of longing to be a mom.

"Well there is something that's called Jello”

"Wait, 'Jello'?" 

"Yeah, I have no I clue what that is"

"It's a food item"

"Oh think you can explain it so I can try to make a report out of it?" Daphne asked

"Sure, um, I'll tell you some basic things about it, I won't help you write it though" Pandora firmly told her blonde friend, "Oh and I can help you make some so you can bring it in, Sure you'll get extra credit," Beth told the girl as hands her back the paper,

"That sounds awesome, thank you," Daphne said, getting some ink on her quill. 

"Okay It's a muggle food item, It comes in different colors, red, yellow, green, blue, it's transparent, it's kinda jiggly, often referred to as a snack or dessert item, It can be fruity like pineapple and sometimes people put pineapple chunks in there," Pandora explained pausing every few seconds so Daphne could get it all written down.

"Okay thanks" 

"Hey guys, you know how you're girls?" Eric asked all four girls looked at him, eyebrows raised. 

"Yes, we've noticed" Leo answered for them, her eyebrow raised almost transparent in her voice.

"Well, I think Gemma is mad at me, but I can't figure out why" Pandora looked at Eric, Putting her hair up in her baseball cap. 

"What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Eric said, readying the pans as Beth begins to mix, and Pandora preheats the oven. The girls shared a look of doubt "Really! I didn't do anything!" Pandora nodded 

"Sure you didn't, I gotta go get the frosting, Left it in my room" Pandora left the kitchen followed by Beth with Leo who doesn't want Beth to wonder the Slytherin house alone, leaving Daphne and Eric, Eric was making part of the cake as Daphne just sat on the counter, having taken a break from writing.

"So what are you and Gemma dating? cause if so all you gotta do is say you're sorry, that she was right and give her flowers" Eric chuckled

"No, we're ah, she plays for the other team" Daphne nodded "I don't even really know when she got mad, I was talking and then boom. She was mad" Daphne laughed hopping down and moving other to run her finger in the batter

"I know why she's mad" Eric looked at her and asked why, while swatting her hand away "Because [you're a guy and when a guy opens his mouth, Stupid comes out](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4n0f47EUP1rs55b4o1_500.gif)" Eric tried to hide his smile, 

"Oh yeah," Daphne nodded "Well take this" Eric laughed as he [Threw Four](http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/9100000/-we-re-baking-3-quinn-and-puck-9117609-400-226.gif) on her, She dived Forward grabbing an[ Egg and Smashing](http://rs1104.pbsrc.com/albums/h327/nikilurvesya/Glee-Quick-Quinn%20Fabray%20and%20Noah%20Puckerman/th2s112j8jpg.gif~c200) it on his head, Only for him to throw more stuff on her as they broke into a Food fight. 

* * *

Pandora grabbed the small box with frosting ingredient in it, handing it to Beth so she could see what she has to work with, Pandora grabbed her camera to send the picture to their parents once they were done making it, they then headed back down the hall to the kitchen, Leo walking in front of the two muggle-born daring anyone to bother them, keeping an eye open for Gemma on the way, to see why she was mad. When they reached the door to the kitchen they heard laughter so with a look to the other girls she quietly opened the door to see Daphne and Eric throwing food at each other, She pushed the door open and cleared her throat, when they turned to look at her with slightly guilty faces, Pandora raised her eyebrows as Daphne and Eric looked at each other, and back to the girls

"[We're baking](http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrsvpnW5Ox1qhpvcs.gif)" Daphne laughed, Pandora let a smile on her lips as she took a picture of them, with the special photo-paper that moves.

Beth is kneeling on the ground as she pipes a small border along with the cake as her girlfriend spins it for her, Pandora filling the other Icing bag for when Beth is done with the other, Standing Beth swaps out for the other piping bag as she writes happy birthday "Annddd... All done!" Beth beamed at the group who all lets out sighs and small claps "Now you said she's gonna get this at lunch and she's also going to be opening presents right? cause I need to get her something, If I can join you that is" 

"Yeah of course, but you don't have to get her anything, You made her a [cake](http://nycbirthdaycakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/birthday-cake-images-5.jpg)" Pandora assured Elizabeth who shook her head

"Nah, I'm still gonna get her something, cause I’m officially your go-to female" Pandora looked at the girl in confusion along with Daphne, “Well I think it’s pretty clear that Eric is taken with you, but you still might need a girl in your life, so that's what I’m here for” Elizabeth explained and Leo smirked so large at Eric it almost looked threatening when she leans into ‘whisper’ to Pandora 

“Yeah like if you ever need condoms'” Pandora felt her face fill with color and Eric shrieks out throwing flour at the girl who quickly fights back chucking an egg, but it quickly gets broken up by Beth yipping out to watch for the cake.

But just to be safe Pandora let Beth cast a cooling and storage charm on the cake before Pandora brings it up to her dorm to store away, grabbing her book bag on the way back down to go study with some of the group and maybe meet up with Hermione before her actual birthday.

* * *

Hermione woke up to the smell of parchment and books and that's not so new since she often wakes up that way but today is her birthday and on birthdays they wake to the smell of Pancakes and fruit and cake, but no, Hermione got up and saw that once again she was the first one up, tiptoeing to her dresser and picking out a white sleeves shirt and a black skirt and instead of going for her Gryffindor tie she instead goes for her Gryffindor bow-tie, Hermione grabbed her Socks and black school shoes and headed into the bathroom to get ready before her dorm mates woke.

* * *

Hermione walked out of her dorm just as her dorm mates woke up and went into the bathroom. Hermione, shrugging on her Gryffindor robe as she walked down the staircase to find the twins sitting on the couch, but they looked like they were falling asleep and their heads rolling onto each other. Hermione chuckled to herself going over and gently shaking their shoulders.

"Psst" She whispered causing them to wake slightly "What are you guys doing? You are gonna hurt your neck" The twins grinned before hopping up and squeezing her in a hug between them, she tried to hug them back but it wasn't working out

“Happy birthday, happy birthday to you!” They shouted in a sing-song fashion, Hermione felt tears peak in her eyes, She thinks this is the first time since she was a child and brought cupcakes into the school that someone outside of the family has wished her a Happy Birthday, moving slightly to free her arms she wrapped them in a hug 

"Oh thank you guys so much" she looked at the clock sitting on the fireplace "Oh let's get to breakfast," She told the twins grabbing their hands and handing out to the great hall.

~

Pandora and Daphne got dressed as their dorm mates sleep, Pandora got dressed in a white long sleeve button up, a green Slytherin bow tie, her favorite black skater skirt, and knee-high gray socks, pulling on her black converse, Pandora looks at herself in the full-length mirror, nodding at her outfit, before grabbing her bag and going to meet Daphne who was much faster at getting ready it seemed, as she was downstairs talking about potions with Eric along with Leo who was nodding but not paying attention as she read her book. 

"Hey, guys ready to go?"

"Yeah, Oh Eric and I were just talking and we got Hermione her gifts all wrapped and ready and we're gonna run by before lunch and grab everything"

"Sounds good," Pandora grinned as they started to pile out, only to crash into each other when Pandora abruptly stops "Oh my god, should we not sit with her, that might be too many, maybe have cake in the library?”

“Madam Pince won’t allow it,” Eric said

“I’ll still ask cause I know Daphne and Blaise shouldn’t be seen going over too much.” Pandora tried not to make it sound like a bad thing but Daphne and the others still grimaced at the truth.

"I'll just glare at anyone who tries to cause trouble, Eric can try as well." Leo told the group shoving her book away as she pushed ahead of the group, hair flowing behind her "Now come on, Beth is waiting."

~

After stopping by the Hufflepuff house to pick up Beth who greeted Pandora and Daphne with a hug and Leo with a kiss on the cheek they quickly made their way towards the great hall for breakfast, and somewhere along the way seemed to have been joined by Blaise who claims they ditched him, but soon they made it to the giant set of doors where they found Hermione waiting with Fred and George talking to each other, stopping suddenly when Hermione saw them coming, running towards each other Pandora and Hermione met up halfway running into each other's arms for a hug, knocking the wind out of both of them slightly, not that either noticed or cared as they carried on hugging while their housemates and friends walked over to them, Fred and George nodded to the Slytherin, still feeling off around Slytherins even though like Pandora.

"Happy Birthday Hermione, you're the best friend and like-a-sister a girl could ask for," Pandora said squeezing Hermione tightly

"Oh thank you Pans, you're my best friend too" The bushy-haired girl whispered, pulling away from her friend to glance at the group surrounding them, but she didn't get a chance to look long before she was swept up into Eric's arms as he lifted her in a [hug](http://media.vanityfair.com/photos/5718dd1b4ec641262194618a/master/w_690,c_limit/jon-arya-hug.gif)

"Oh Happy Birthday, Mione!" Eric cheered, voice, slightly muffled by Hermione's curls

"Oh thank you, Eric!" Hermione replied as he sat her down, taking a moment to regain her balance, only for it to be off again as she is hugged by Daphne, full force, followed by Blaise who doesn't throw himself at her instead gives a small one-armed hug around the now older girl, Once the two friends pulled away, Hermione found an older girl who wasn't much taller than her at 5'2 crouching slightly 

"Hi Hermione, I'm Beth, I met Pandora yesterday, happy birthday" The girl- Beth beamed in a rush holding her arms out in a silent way of asking for permission to hug, Hermione answered her by stepping into the older girls embrace, hugging her, somewhat awkwardly.

"Hi I'm Leo, Beth's girlfriend and Pandora's housemate, Happy birthday," Leo said, letting a small almost awkward smile on her face as she held out her hand to shake Hermione, who gladly took it, noting how Leo's skin is much cooler to her Girlfriends warm touch.

“Well thank you both, It’s nice meeting you, but we should head in,” Hermione said as she moves over towards the twins, “But we’ll be sitting together for dinner, right?” Hermione asked Pandora, sadden that they couldn’t sit together for Hermione’s birthday.

“Yeah, I’ll see you at dinner Mione’” Pandora hugged Hermione, trying to look over the taller's shoulder to stare down Fred and George, trying to warn them with her eyes to keep Hermione happy and safe today, She’s pretty sure they understand as they nod slightly.

Pulling away from the hug Pandora, walked to stand next to Eric and Daphne as the group walked into the Great hall, Gryffindors going one way as Slytherin's went another, minus Leo who stood back to walk Beth over to her table.

Once at the Slytherin table she sits on the right side across from where Hermione is sat at the Gryffindor table, they wave at each other slightly before their view is blocked by Fred who sits across from Hermione with George by his side.

Leo sits across from Pandora, grabbing the toast off of Pandora’s plate, making the younger girl attempt to glare at her, only succeeding in making the older blonde chuckle, as she munches on the stolen bacon

“You’d have to remind me to teach you to glare” Leo chuckled as she begins to plate herself breakfast, Eric groaned as he sat Next to Pandora on her left followed by Daphne across from him, Blaise stopped to talk to one of his other friends,

“Do not corrupt her, Leo” Eric begged, Making Daphne chuckled as she looked at the older girl

“Will you teach me too?” 

Leo looked down at the blonde by her side, shrugging she turned to face the younger girl “Let me see what you got” Leo challenged, watching Daphne relaxed her shoulders slightly to glare at the older witch, who nodded her head impress

“You won’t need much help”

“Cool,” Daphne smirked, along with Leo.

Making Eric bang his head against the table.

* * *

Pandora walked out of her last class for the day along with Daphne and Blaise, they walked down towards the dungeons to get all that they need, stopping when they reached the entrance to find their friends standing there, next to them a pile of the gift, Beth was holding the cake, the smile still on her face, Next to her was Leo who held two small bags, Pandora assumed one of them was Beth’s present for Hermione, as well as her own, Eric grinned at them handing Pandora the gift she got for Hermione, that was wrapped in lilac wrapping paper.

“We just grabbed it all for you guys so we won’t be late” Eric explained picking up a thin present wrapped in an old newspaper, handing it to Daphne who smiled in thanks, Followed by Eric handing Blaise a red and gold bag, and finally picking up his present that was inside a small box.

“So I checked with Madam Pince and she said it's okay to put the presents and cake in there after we just have to be careful and quiet” Pandora beamed at the group

“That’s great! I’m still sitting with you two for dinner though, I double-checked Gemma and with the headmaster, he said he’d take care of Snape and gave me ten points for looking out for a student.” Eric stated smugly causing the girls to roll their eyes at him.

“Thanks, now let's head over, I can’t wait to see Hermione’s Face” Pandora smiled as they all started walking out of the dungeons and to the great hall. 

* * *

Hermione was practically skipping as she found herself walking towards the great hall, It seemed a few others had known it was her birthday, having wished her a good birthday, she didn’t stay alone on her walk as soon the Weasley twins decided to sandwich her, as they jokingly threw an arm each around her, Fred grinning down at her, whilst she pretended to be annoyed

“So-”

“How-”

“Is your-”

“Birthday-” 

“So far?” Fred and George asked and Hermione couldn’t help the smile that came across her face from their antics.

“It’s actually quite nice so far,” Hermione admitted, she had to be truthful, when she thought her birthday was going to be horrid and spent mostly alone.

“Well I’m glad, Oh does the birthday girl wish to continue our game of truth,” Fred asked after him and his twins dropped their arms from the younger girl's shoulders, He had already told George about the game Hermione told him about the night of the Prank, and George had told him how Pandora played with him.

“Oh yeah, and since it’s my birthday I’ll go first” Hermione jokes, but watched as Fred nodded “Okay have you ever broken a bone? I have not” Hermione asked, watching as Fred’s cheeks and ears flush with Pink as George laughed beside her.

“Yes” Fred muttered out, leaving his answer simple

“Oh no tell her the story, Freddie” George teased his twin

“She can ask on her next turn,” Fred said, sticking his tongue out at his twin, “Now Hermione what was your favorite birthday and why?” Fred asked and watched as Hermione got a small smile on her face

“It was when I turned seven, Pandora and her family had decided to keep living with us and we had just moved into our new house, I woke up to find Pandora was not in her bedroom but was in my bed and the smell of not only my mom’s famous Waffles but Mama Jessie's famous cinnamon rolls and I was happy, I was with my family,” Hermione recalled, smiling, she turns to Fred “What’s the story about you breaking a bone,” Hermione asked, amused to see Fred’s ears flush with red

“Well It was during the summer, when we were eleven, Our oldest brother Bill was in his 4th year, and was on the quidditch team, Charlie was 13 and talking about joining and well I wanted to practices so I could join and even be better than George, well I had decided back then I wanted to be a beater so when I got the balls out to start practicing, they got loose and for some reason, I decided to hold on I was in the air when It managed to make me let go I had fallen on my arm and broken it, It started to come back down It would’ve hit the other one if mom hadn’t ran out Screaming, waving her wand around like a madwoman, I thought she was gonna be mad but she was just happy I was mostly okay.” At the end of his story George was in tears, Hermione, while she was worried after hearing what happened, couldn’t help the giggle that escaped, that soon turned into a full belly laugh

“I’m so sorry, That’s truly awful” Hermione attempted to say through her laughter.

“Oh yeah, fine, What was your most embarrassing moment,” Fred asked, grinning smugly, Feeling like he won one over on her

Hermione made a face, tapping her chin, making it look like she was thinking “Well, That is a hard one, I’d have to go with, Pass,” Hermione grinned as Fred’s face dropped, it seemed he had forgotten of that part of the game, “And you can’t ask the same question twice” Fred Grumbled out a fine, While George once more laugh at his twin, bumping Hermione with his shoulder

“Seems like Pandora’s not the only Slytherin, That was pretty sly” Hermione blushed slightly mumbling out a thank you as they enter the great hall, to find it almost completely silent aside from a few murmurs here and there and as Hermione and the Twins drew closer to the table she saw why;

At the very front of the Gryffindor table was Pandora and Eric their green robes standing out from the all the red and gold, Pandora and Eric sat on the left side with room for Hermione in the middle, and a space for the twins across from them, practically running up to them Hermione met Pandora in a hug, not pulling away to take in everything that is happening at the table, not was Eric sitting with them for the first time but he was doing so for her birthday and by the looks of the twins, it looks like they were sitting with them, for her birthday.

“What is this?” Hermione asked Eric, “It’s your birthday,” Eric states as if it’s obvious “What did you think we’d let you spend it alone?” He questions playfully, messing up her hair farther and she doesn’t notice the weird looks from the others at the table.

“Well, I just figured cause you’re a prefect,” Hermione said shyly

“I told you I’m your friend, friends eat dinner together.” Eric said, smiling boyishly at Hermione, who smiles back, eyes glassy with tears of happiness, “So shall we eat, cause some of the others got you gifts to open in the library after dinner” Hermione immediately wanted to protest but was not allowed to by everyone just starting to push food her way, Pandora snickered thinking she was off the hook but soon got Eric’s attention which made him add an extra spoon of mashed potatoes.

The five of them ate, and joined in the conversation, though again for the twins it was a tad weirder which even Eric agreed, he probably would have never talked to the twins if not for the girls.

And finally, as dinner drew to a close and people started drifting out Eric glanced around the hall nodding to the others that it was time to head to the library.

Hermione was confused by the fact Pandora didn’t let her have any dessert but trusted her friend, grinning when she saw Fred and George each swipe a cookie when Pandora wasn’t looking and later when they begin walking towards the library, apparently meeting up with the others, Fred slipped half a cookie into her hand, before quickly stuffing it in his mouth, causing his cheeks to puff out.

Hermione chuckles to herself, Pandora is busy talking to George and Eric is walking ahead of them slightly, Fred gestures for her to do the same in a hurry and she glances around before trying to stuff the whole thing in her mouth, only resulting in crumbs in all over her and Fred to laugh so hard while trying to stay quiet.

Finally walking into the library Hermione looks to Madam Pince but just sees the older lady smile and nodded them along before fixing a scowl on her face and warns them to keep it down.

Towards the back of the library where only the older students tend to go when studying for the OWL’s and NEWT’s according to Eric who swiftly looks over Fred, George, Pandora and briefly Hermione “You guys are not allowed to do any pranking or anything like that, trust me in a few years you guys will be realizing how much you need these space, and be happy I’m telling you, normally it's kinda hidden past down knowledge” Eric explained

“Who told you about it?” Hermione asked, 

“Leo told me and Beth and we agreed to tell you guys and Gemma” Pushing past some beaded curtain, they saw the room was filled with more of the Slytherin house and Hufflepuff holding the cake.

“Happy birthday!” The group said quietly ushering them into the room and Eric put a charm on the doorway to help muffle sounds.

“Oh you guys really didn’t have to get me anything,” Hermione tried to say, but Daphne speaks up

“It’s your birthday, Of course, we had too,” She said, with Blaise nodding in agreement.  
Hermione thanks them and introduces them to Fred and George who wave, Pandora looks at them and if they felt weird about being in a room with Slytherins, well, at least you could tell they were trying to hide it.

Leo smirked at the boys, as they all gathered around the coffee table that Beth placed the cake on and Leo broke out some plates and silverware, as Eric snatched the lighter away from Pandora and lit the candles for Hermione himself.

Hermione smiles as Eric tells her to make a wish, and pulls Pandora in to make a wish with her, “On three?” Hermione asked and Pandora nods,

“One,” Hermione says making room  
“Two,” Pandora continues,  
“Three” Hermione and Pandora said together and then blew out the candles, making a wish, often the same wish they always make, to be friends forever.

After the candles are removed Beth quickly hands out the cake to everyone, giving the bigger slice to Hermione who does feel slightly guilty at half of the cookie now but she can see Fred’s amused face and decides to eat it all just to show off. 

* * *

Hermione regretted it but still put on a smile, once everyone at their table had finished eating Leo sat a bag down In front of Hermione, Beth grinning at her side “This one is from us” Beth spoke hurried as if she couldn’t wait for Hermione to open her gift.

Hermione looked slightly shocked “But you just met me, you didn’t have to get me anything,” Hermione said shaking her hands around in disbelief 

“We wanted too,” Beth said, with a bright smile, and Leo chimes in  
“Beth already declared herself as a big sister to most of her house, just go with it” To which Beth shrugged, pushing her gift forward slightly.

Opening the black and yellow bag Hermione pulls out a pair of blue ankle-length [socks ](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/28/14/a3/2814a3045d3d543c3533cc707ddf146e.jpg)with ruffles at the top with bananas on them, “These are so cute thank you Elizabeth”

“Oh, I’m glad you like them!” Beth then tried to get as close as she could to the younger girl as she leaned across the table only to be able to pat the girl's hand as she now sits in her girlfriend's lap.

Next to give a gift was Blaise who handed her a small red and gold bag, Opening said bag Hermione was pleasantly surprised to find a [book](http://orbitowski.pl/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/book-809396_960_720.jpg)\- an old book the blue of the cover was fading, the words that once titled it was almost gone, the pages rough and yellow with age and had that musty smell that could only be recognized as a book, “I-It’s beautiful” Hermione whispered staring at the small book in awe 

“What is it about, Blaise?” Pandora asked for Hermione seeing that she was too busy letting her fingers trail over the said book, taking in all the dents and creases, not that Pandora could blame her, She was in awe of the book as well

“It’s about the history of wands, It’s from my family’s library, I had my mother send it up when I learned about your birthday, I thought it would be something you’d like” Blaise explained and Pandora felt that his dark skin might have been hiding a blush

“Oh thank you so much, Blaise, I’m sure I’m going to love it” Hermione thanked her Slytherin friend, Blaise mumbled out his welcome, not meeting anyone’s eyes as he drank his pumpkin juice and for some reason Fred finds himself looking at the Slytherin boy, unsure of his own thoughts. 

It seemed Daphne couldn’t wait any longer as she shoved her present into Hermione’s arms, messing with her balance, making her wobble back in her chair slightly as she accepted the gift with Pandora’s hand on her back settling her in her seat.

Chuckling at the newspaper wrapping, Hermione quickly unwrapped her present, it was a beautiful beaded [hip bag,](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/16/58/89/165889a38b31f500479aa6d9febbd1cf.jpg) long enough to sling across her shoulders and has a such a soft cloth “Thank you so much, It’s so groovy”

“I’m glad you liked it, I bought it just to spend my Parents money when they left me alone so I wasn’t really looking for anything.” that got Daphne a few raised eyebrows and a few grins.

“Here you go, Mione,” George said passing a small bag to Hermione, using a nickname of hers that Pandora told him, “I noticed you didn’t have one” He explains as she pulls out a[ red and gold scarf ](https://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/5702063/il_570xN.276389708.jpg)from the small bag

“Thank you George” Hermione smiled at the redhead, but Fred then shoves a Lumby wrapped gift into her arms

“I had this extra sweater my mum gave us, she likes to knit,” Fred explains as Hermione began to unwrap the gift in her hand to reveal a maroon colored [sweater ](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/81/26/2a/81262ac09b322cc9399c66be5ceb0263.jpg)“Every Christmas she makes us kids a ‘Weasley’ sweater, this isn’t exactly one but it is a nice sweater” Fred explained as Hermione tries not to get tears in her eyes.

“Way to go, Freddie, you found a spare mum sweater, all I did was give her a scarf” George teased his twin, who grins behind a blush

“George, don’t tease Fred, I love both of your gifts, Thank you, Fred, this is so soft,” Hermione told the boys handing the sweater to Pandora for her to feel, who then secretly makes the plan to steal it from her now and then.

"I can't wait any longer" Pandora admitted placing the sweater on her lap, making Hermione and the others laugh at her confession

"I was wondering when you were gonna cave" Hermione jokes, causing Pandora to stick her tongue out at the birthday girl with a laugh as she hands over a small gift wrapped in lavender-colored paper, with a beautiful white bow on top.

As Hermione unwrapped her gift she noticed Pandora get her camera out of her bag, looking down at the gift Hermione noticed that it was her favorite book, Matilda by Ronald Dahl, confused because she already has two different copies of the said book she looks up to Pandora who is grinning so widely that Hermione worries for the sake her friend's cheeks

"Open it" was Pandora's only hint as to why Hermione has just gotten the same book she already owns two of.

Opening the book to the first page Hermione faintly hears the click of Pandora's camera but she is far more focused on the book in hand, the book looked the same as her other copies but instead of the page being blank except for the title, was a small handwritten message that made Hermione's jaw drop as she read it

_"To Miss Hermione Granger, may your birthday be surrounded by laughter and love, and always remember that you are capable of amazing things ~ Ronald Dahl"_

Hermione couldn't believe what she held in her hands she looks up to see Pandora's grinning face, She holds back tears as she throws herself in Pandora's arms, sniffly into her friend's neck 

"Thank you so much, You are the best friend a girl could ever hope for and I'm so happy to have you in my life, I love you," Hermione tells her in rush, the words spilling out of her

"I love you too, and trust me I learned from the best when it came to being a good friend," Pandora tells Hermione, Hugging the girl back just as tightly, before finally pulling apart to carry on with the group, opening the last gift that was from Eric.

“It’s a magical [compass ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/16/58/89/165889a38b31f500479aa6d9febbd1cf.jpg)that will point you to the person or item you are thinking about while holding it,” Eric tells her as she pulls out the compass holding it in her hand she listens to Eric, trying to focus on him but can feel and hear Pandora’s breathing next to her she can’t focus, but she notices that it's going a tad wonky “Yeah because it goes off of your thoughts you have to make sure not to let your mind wander” 

Hermione takes a breath and tries again to focus on Eric and this time lets out a delightful gasp as it points to where Eric is “Thank you so much! I can only imagine how useful this could be” 

Eric tells her it’s no problem, roughing up her hair.

~

Finally, it got to the time that everyone started to head out, Beth and Leo offering Hermione one more happy birthday and goodnight to everyone else, they headed out with Beth grabbing all the dishes, despite the offers of help from the others.

Daphne and Blaise decided to walk back, most likely figuring that the others would walk Hermione back.

Which is exactly what Fred and George offered to do but Eric thanked them and said he would do it as a prefect and that he could walk them all back after in just a moment, just had to make sure everything was picked up, but Fred and George said it was okay and they won’t even be seen heading back and before Eric could object they ran off causing him to sign and turn to the girls 

“How do you possibly find the school's biggest troublemakers to be friends with.”

“Can you believe we weren’t even trying?” Pandora beamed and Hermione snickered as Eric let's put another overly played out a sigh 

“Yes, I can cause that’s my luck” Eric tried to drag it out but could no longer keep the smile off his face as he led the girls out, waving goodnight to Madam Pince that warned them they were cutting it close.

Eric and Pandora walked Hermione back to her house, wishing her goodnight before they headed back to their house, tired but happy from what was a peaceful day.

Pandora hoped they all had more peaceful days in the future.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was such a fun and cute chapter to write, It made me smile, don't worry the whole thing isn't gonna be sappy but you gotta give cute sweet things in life, ya know :D 
> 
> Enjoy -OffKeyPanda :D

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I really hope you guys enjoy this story! The summery is kinda eh right now, but I'm trying to write a better one I promise, Haha!  
> Please comment and review I would like to answer any questions you guys have or just to chat! :D


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